hotel dusk: last window?

If you read this blog at all you know I love point-and-click adventure games more than any other genre. I'm always on the lookout for great games that I missed in the past as some of the best adventure games are older titles. Still, occasionally new games come out that make me jump for joy because of their commitment to preserving the wonderful tradition of point-and-click. One company whose game I have really taken a liking for is Cing, who developed Trace Memory and Hotel Dusk: Room 215 for the Nintendo DS. Imagine my surprise and thrill when my boyfriend clued me into to recent development news on a Hotel Dusk sequel! Apparently titled Last Window, the DS game is not strictly a sequel but does star my favorite video game anti-hero Kyle Hyde in a plot that occurs a year after the events of the original Hotel Dusk game. Last Window will also make reference to characters from the previous game. Gameplay elements will likely be very similar with a few changes including rumble-pak support. As a huge fan of the first Hotel Dusk game I will for sure be pre-ordering this one... whenever it gets a North American release date, anyway!

Last Window DS - New Details

finger physics

Mobile games come and go; some are crappy, some are mildly entertaining, some provide fun for a little while, but it is truly the special iPhone game that holds my attention long enough to not be deleted within a week or so. I have discovered another one of these special games in Finger Physics, a fun little game from Press OK Entertainment. The premise of the game is simply stacking blocks into stable structures, with different puzzles based on the conditions applied to the blocks. For example, there are magnetic levels where blocks interact like polar magnets with each other, there are underwater levels with floating and sinking blocks, and there are your typical blocks that explode when they touch each other. The game is very tightly programmed and animated so for the most part it stays true to its claim of using real physics to affect the blocks' movement. Occasionally here and there you'll weasel your way through a level thanks to a glitchy count or some other small bug, but it hasn't been anything really bothersome. All in all, this game is a great deal at $0.99 (and they just added 18 new levels), plus I think it is actually free today for some reason, so if you haven't tried this one on your iPhone or iPod Touch, it's worth picking up!

silent hill: shattered memories

We recently signed up for GameFly (we're a little pissed at the crappy copy of Batman: Arkham Asylum we received as one of our first games, but that's another story/Xbox360 rant..) and one of our first selections to be mailed to us was Silent Hill: Shattered Memories for the Nintendo Wii. Made by (in my opinion) the always trustworthy Konami, I had heard that this game was a retelling of the original Silent Hill title but from the perspective of Cybil the cop. This is not really the case, although the game does deal with the original Silent Hill story. Lost and scared in what seems to be an abandoned town during a snowstorm, you are looking for your daughter and things are of course not what they seem. The controls are cool - you have a flashlight in one hand which serves as your camera control, and a cellphone that opens up menus for everything else. There is no real combat; there are sequences where everything goes dark (if you know Silent Hill you'll know what I mean) and bad things come out to get you and your only choice is to run run run! These parts are actually less enjoyable to me as the environments often start looking very monotone after running through four or five rooms like this, plus I personally play games like this one for the creepy plotline and story elements. Shattered Memories does provide a good deal of this in an eerie environment with great ambient scariness. There is an element of interview with a psychologist that is a weird but cool twist and can alter the progression your game takes apparently based on how you answer questions and respond to activities. Overall I'm really enjoying this new Silent Hill title and though I am ambiguous on how I feel about the removal of combat, I am glad to have more Silent Hill lore to whet my palate. Love it!

mirror's edge for the iphone

I have not played Mirror's Edge although I watched many gameplay videos at the time of its release and it always seemed like an interesting premise with a lot of promise with regards to the control system. The acrobatic flips and tricks that your character Faith flies through the levels performing made for exciting time trial competitions and a solid replay value. This is why I think this game is an ideal candidate to be made into a mobile game, and apparently Electronic Arts thinks so as well as they are in the process of making it. The game will apparently be 14 levels long and while it will incorporate Faith's artful leaps and flips, the gameplay will change up a bit as this handheld version is a 3-D sidescroller. I would imagine there will be some incorporation of tilt controls - at least there should be! More information regarding a release date and pricing will surely follow closer to this game's release on the App Store.

Mirror's Edge Running Straight to the iPhone

new year's resolution

It's official, I am making myself get back into blogging. Much like so many other things in life, it's so easy to get out of the habit of blogging regularly when you stop doing it for even one day. I have had a ton of craziness going on in my life with major changes when it comes to work (can I get a "fuck retail"?) and with any luck I will even be moving shortly. We will see about all of that. But one thing is for sure, I will be posting here more often in 2010. The holiday season and all its insane marketing is over and there are tons of great new games on the horizon, so *raises glass* here's to 2010 in gaming being a great year! And thank you once again to anyone who reads this blog, I heart you.

sims 3 world adventures

The first expansion pack for the Sims 3 came out this week and I have to admit, I am really enjoying Sims 3: World Adventures so far! I was skeptical at first - we've seen vacationing before in Sims 2: Bon Voyage and while it was well done there, I was worried that World Adventures would seem like merely a reinvention of the new stuff introduced in BV. Not to worry! World Adventures is in fact a really cool addition to the many already cool and new features of the Sims 3. For one thing, there are three new locations to visit, replicating China, France and Egypt - your Sims can visit these locations as vacations for a small fee and spend time without advancing time in the normal game. There are new skills to acquire - martial arts and photography - and several new personality traits that can influence your Sim's behavior and lifestyle. I have only played through some of the new stuff but overall I am pretty impressed. Also, this could totally be a coincidence, but I have to say that my game has been running waaaay better than it ever did before World Adventures and the accompanying game patch, so that's something for sure. All in all, there is a lot of cool new game content and gameplay details to be had in World Adventures, plus registering it on Sims3.com gets you a free 1,000 points to put towards downloading new hairstyles, outfits and furniture. If you're a big fan of the Sims, I don't think you'll be disappointed with World Adventures. I look forward to exploring it further and figuring out all the cool new things I can do with this first expansion pack.

dragon age: origins

The boyfriend just finished his first playthrough of Dragon Age: Origins, the latest party-based RPG from developer Bioware, and it was a pretty epic game. This fantasy RPG is a pretty awesome, full game that certainly is reminiscent of Bioware's Star Wars RPG Knights of the Old Republic, and this first playthrough at least took over 70 hours. Considering there are six different character class origins to start with, each with a unique storyline, I think this speaks highly for the replay value of this game. If you liked KOTOR or Mass Effect in recent years, Dragon Age: Origins may be up your alley. The combat is pretty typical if you've played Bioware games before. The characters are very cool and despite the game's similarities to Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, they are more deeply developed and offer more of an emotional distinction from character to character. One big issue I have to take with this game is its graphics and presentation. While it runs smoothly, it looks like crap and seems like not much of an engine upgrade from KOTOR - I would believe it if I read that it was the same game engine at work here. Considering the leaps and bounds taken by other current-generation games with regards to animation, this game seriously disappoints in that realm. Luckily it is pretty much the only area in which this game suffers, so as long as you are not too much of a graphics snob (and are planning on playing it on an Xbox 360 - can't speak for how much worse it might look on a PS3) you will most likely still get some serious enjoyment out of this game. Looking forward to experiencing different characters and plot elements in the second (and other future) playthroughs!

halo: reach will debut at spike awards

Some guy from GameTrailers.com has announced via Twitter (Of course! Is there any other way to announce anything these days?) that the Spike TV Video Game Awards will be held live this year on December 12th. One of the more major news stories going along with this revelation is the announcement that Halo: Reach will have its official world premiere during the Video Game Awards. Reach is of course a first-person shooter slated to be the last game in the Halo franchise developed by original game developers Bungie; future Halo games (you know it's not ending any time soon, hello Spielberg movie?) will be handled by Microsoft game subsidiary 343 Industries. With all the awesome titles that launched in 2009 it should be a cool year for video game awards, with Batman: Arkham Asylum, Left 4 Dead 2, CoD: Modern Warfare 2, Uncharted 2 and Assassin's Creed 2 all receiving nominations for Game of the Year. Sounds like this year's VGAs are worth catching, if only to see which of the many deserving game titles ends up running away with GotY this year.

World Premiere Halo: Reach at Spike Video Game Awards

mario is timeless

Video game characters come and go; some are universally loved, others hated, and other still manage to be remembered for cheesy lines, awesome weaponry and crazy special moves. Yet no video game character is (or really, will ever be) as pervasive as everyone's favorite Italian plumber Mario! Whether you grew up with Mario in the 80's, originally meeting him as "Jumpman" in the Donkey Kong arcade game, or you met him as a youngster in Super Smash Bros. or any of the other more recent Mario franchises, one thing is for sure: the world cannot get enough of Mario. He is tenacious, cute, exciting and brave. He always manages to save Princess Peach, no matter what kind of crazy situation with Bowser she's got herself into now. This summer he and Luigi even ventured into Bowser a la Innerspace in Bowser's Inside Story, and now a whole new generation of gamers will get to experience classic side-scrolling fun in New Super Mario Bros., which dropped this past weekend. So whether Mario is a favorite of yours or you have minimal experience with the short, scrappy plumber, rest assured knowing that Mario is here to stay.

Nintendo's Mario Endures Even As Games Come and Go