A New Review!! I really should find a new name for my videos.. as a game review is pretty low down the list of things I would call my videos.. heh… Any suggestions?
Anyway.. this one is all about Portal 1 and 2. I hope you like it. As I am not limited to 10 mins a review anymore I noticed I am getting longer and longer .. this one is about 15mins.. I might have to do something to get this under control next time as my last review was also 15+ mins.
Anyway, I’ll be taking a break for a bit but have a few other games in my list I want to look at that are all back on the original topic.. pure adventure games. So stay tuned for that.
One last thing!!
I have 2 copies of Portal 1 to give away!! So anyone that can email me a short 1 paragraph explanation of what their favorite adventure game character is and why! I’ll select the 2 winners and send them a copy of Portal 1 to activate on steam, the 1st prize winner I will also do a video on their chosen game!!
Email – a4lcontact@gmail.com
Happy Adventuring!!
–A4L
This is a 2nd version of my portal review… with any luck the start of the video will not be all bugged out like last time….This means my viewcount was reset :( So add another 220 or so.. also I lost the comments.. feel free to comment again!!!
Here is my first review for a long time… I hope you like it. It is also my first review after being offered the YouTube partnership program… So I am no longer limited to 10 mins. This could be a bad thing.. heh.. oh well we will see what happens.
This is all about Space Quest 2: Vohaul’s Revenge. Though if you have seen my reviews before you might know I like to stray around the topic a bit to talk about some things I find to be very interesting things usually concerned with gaming history. Still it is sorta about space quest 2…. I mean I do mention it I am sure :)
Anyway … I have bee extremely busy with real life and just not being doing much on my review channel for so long but it was really cool to finally get this one out the door and I hope to get more to you soon.
I’m back with a new review and this time I am doing one of my all time favorites form the Sierra game library. Conquest of Longbow – The Legend of Robin Hood. This game is a true classic in every sense of the word. One of the last tittles form sierra before the switching to the more complex style of having audio speech This game is one of the last, and some would say the pinnacle of the dying breed of adventure games that had more incommon with books than films.
If you are interested in trying this amazing game it is one of the few titles that is legal abandonware. The game designer herself provides it (and its predecessor Conquest of Camelot) for free on her website. There is also a really neat installer for those of you that are not very technically savvy and have troubles with DosBox… Simply download the game from Cirsty Marx’s site and then unzip it into a directory, then download the installer from SierraHelp.com and place it in the same dir and run the exe.
So there is no reason not to try this classic game and experience one of the greatest love stories in adventure game history, though simply fantastic writing.
Well I know I said I would take a beak form these videos for a while but a mate suggested I played the Penumbra series and after a short while I knew I wanted to do a review on it. Then I heard that Frictional Games was about to release their new title Amnesia: The Dark Descent, like next month or something, so I quickly pumped this out.
Penumbra is a strange mix of genres and while the game resembles a survival horror it is much more in tune with older first person adventure games than games like Clock Tower or Dead Space. The game plays exactly like Zork Nemesis. You basically walk around in first person, exploring and solving puzzles, mainly item and object puzzles, though there is a few code puzzles. The big difference though from Zork or Myst or w/e is that as you walk you are simply terrified. I mean this game is really scary. There is little, and depending on your play style zero combat, so this defiantly isn’t an action game But a big part of the game is focused on exploration of the spooky environment. So unlike traditional first person adventures the simple act of walking about is part of the gameplay design. Meaning that the puzzles, though a big part of it, are not as dense or complex as some tradition adventures due to the game needing to keep a strict eye on pacing. You see to keep us scared the game needs to constantly give us new areas to explore, it is the unknown that keeps us on the edge of our seat. So the pacing and puzzle density is also a bit different to what you may be used to. While this feels different to a classic adventure, it is a very unique game and if you are interested in a adventure style type game, but with a very well done survival horror twist, topped with a really unique and extremely good interface design then I would strongly suggest checking this one out.
Well that is it! I tried something new with this one… normally when i do a vid I just babble into the mic and then cut video to it, but this time I wrote it out first. I think it is a mixed success. While i seamed to get a lot more information into it, witch was the goal, I think it lost some of the “casual feeling” that the ad-libbing had. Also as it was a contained written “article” so I found editing it to fit the time was extremely hard, as removing any one bit would make the preceding or following section not make sense. So I ended up having to speak a little fast and my words kinda run together. So while this is pretty dense in information it is a bit formal and just lacks a bit of personality. I think this could be just practice… so we will see if I get better at this way of doing things
(PS – Tubezen has disabled direct linking to download YouTube videos. So all my old direct mp4 download links do not work anymore. If you wish to keep any of my vids I recommend using the FIREFOX browser and simply installing the free plugin “Easy Youtube Downloader” You can then at a click of a button save any res version of the video on youtub e or grab a mp3 at a click of a button)
Hey guys… back with my last review for a while .I tend to do them in 2′s but I did 3 this month!!! OMG… heh… oh well back to work now :)
Ok well this is for Star Trek BORG a FMV interactive star trek episode and a sorely under rated game imo. This is an old game from 1996 and was pretty hard for me to track down. I am still looking for a “in good nick” version of its predecessor Star Trek: Klingon.
This game was a real pain to get running. I had to end up running it in a 95 virtualization. This was when applications came in both dos and windows, and Microsoft “encouraged” developers to check the OS before launching the games. If 95 is not detected, the game will not load, a really bad move and the bain of us retro gamers. There is a patch (Google: Star trek Borg patch) that gets it to run in XP, and I hear vista and win7.. but only in a 32bit environment. It will not run in 64bit windows at all, and for some reason my 32 bit XP virtualization wouldn’t display, the videos played but appeared as black. Anyway.. I had to set up a 95 virtualization and that was a bit harder than you might think.. Still I got it working and it is well worth the effort if you are a trek fan, or just interested in FMV game in general.
Anyway, while this game is terrific and I really enjoyed it. I would only really advise it for Star Trek fans (like me!) and anyone interested in the lost and, imo, ever under-valued and potentially amazing game type that is FMV.
I hope you like the video
Happy Adventuring
YouTube Direct Link MP4 – download
YouTube Direct Link HD MP4 – download
Ok… back with another review!! This was meant to be all three games in this trilogy all at once, but it seams my memory of the original game is somewhat distorted over time. I remember this as a fantastic game that I loved… but … I now consider it to be the worst game I have played in recent times form my retro library. Those of you that have emailed me saying I never ever have anything bad to say about any of the games I do… well here you go.
It is a shame really as the 2nd Game is a real diamond and well worth your time. I will have to give it a video itself, as I do not want this vid to put people off what is really a great game world, and a beautiful fantasy, fairy tale style adventure series. It is strange really, I have stopped playing adventure with much less bad game design as this, the 1st in the series, but the charm of these charicters and story is still there hidden under the broken gameplay.
YouTube Direct Link MP4 – download
YouTube Direct Link 720p MP4 – download
Been really busy… had this one on the back burner for a while and finally got the time to finish it.. It is a little rushed as I just couldn’t fit everything I wanted to say in 10 mins but didn’t have enough to say to make 2 videos.
This, obviously, is for The Colonel’s Bequest. IMO a very under rated game and well worth a look see if you missed it. Personally I loved playing this when I was younger and I still enjoy it. Though what makes this great is the way it changes when you play it again.. but as I have played it on and off for over 20 years… there are few surprises left in it for me :(
Oh well..
Anyway.. hope you like it. I am pretty busy making my own hobby adventure game at the moment.. so I do not think there will be a new one for a while… Still when there is I hope to see you then
Happy Adventures
YouTube Direct Link MP4 (32meg) – download
YouTube Direct Link HD MP4 (152meg) – download
Ok… well here we go again.. and this time I am doing Death Gate. A Legend Interactive game and a terrific example of how incredibly well designed puzzles and interaction with the game world can overcome age. This is retro gaming in a nutshell. Based on The Death Gate Cycle this game brings a terrific story, has extremely good conversations trees and voice over’s, brilliant game design and even some genre first game devices now common place in game. Though this game did it first.
Well this is my last review for the time being (I tend to do them in 2s for some reason) and I hope you like it. The Policenauts review was a little rushed as it was an after though. I was in fact working on The Cornels’ Bequest, but thought it would be good to get that review out while the game was in its current resurgence of popularity due to the recent release of the English fansub.
I think I am finally starting to get these reviews working as I wish, as in fitting in most of the commentary I wish to fit in.. I am even under 10 min this time I feel this is my best review so far.
Anyway.. I hope you like it
Have fun and Happy Adventuring
YouTube Direct Link MP4 (32meg) – download
YouTube Direct Link HD MP4 (152meg) – download
This time it is for Policenauts… a very over rated game imo form the creator Hideo Kojima of Metal Gear Solid fame. This game has a very intense and interesting story that is presented as as a Anime Interactive film. You will need to expect to be passively watching vast amounts of dialogue and cut sequences with small action sequences and some very strait forward and shockingly easy point and click for the actual game play.
The story itself is very adult and spends a great amount of time in very complex character building, witch is a pleasure to watch. Though I found this game entertaining in the end I was getting more and more bored of the “game” and just wished it was in fact a 45 to an hour long film
As much of this games greatness is in fact the animated sequences again I was unable to really show much of the really cool stuff, that this game has in abundance. I didn’t want this to be like a movie trailer that shows all the good bits.
Anyway, Hope you like it
YouTube Direct Link MP4 (32meg) – download
YouTube Direct Link HD MP4 (152meg) – download
Hope you guys like it. Again I kinda ran out of room on this one.. so it is a little rushed at the end… also I had a terrible time trying to work out what I could show and what I couldn’t. Shadow of the Comet is so subtle that most of the “cool” stuff is needed to be seen during a play though otherwise the game will be spoiled. So the visuals are not as exciting as some of my other ones.
Shadow of the Comet. A Infograms games and a real masterpiece that suffers greatly by uninvolved game design concepts. These flaws are expected to not exist by today’s gamers. Things like game blocks, location dependant items, strict quest progression orders… still even with these problems Shadow of the Comet is one of the shinning examples from the Adventure game genre of how to make a truly creepy and interesting horror game. One that is scary though story, not though showing gore or cheap “startle scares” Like the works of H.P. Lovecraft that this game emulates Shadow of the Comet is a cerebral horror story of subtle vision.
If you are a avid adventure game player I strongly advise you play this amazing game. Though if you are more casual then the drawbacks of the interface and the aforementioned game blocks will most likely be to much for you.
YouTube Direct Link MP4 (32meg) – download
YouTube Direct Link HD MP4 (152meg) – download