June 2011
24 posts
King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride (1994)
I owe you a review, but this is going to be short because it’s terrible. First off, as much as I fucking love the whole KQ series, I can’t believe they tossed this one out - secondly, I can’t believe I replayed it as a 27-year-old adult, because I almost died of sensory diabetes. The colors. The music. The animation. This installment of KQ totally dropped the ball where previous KQs blended adventure/fantasy and deft storytelling - where clever dialog and strong personality-driven character appeal really brought the previous games to life, KQ7 not only looks like it’s for kids, it plays like it’s for kids. Anytime the game approached a story element that had the potential to be marvelously macabre or grim or just admirably clever, it fell flat. I had fond memories of it when I was 10; attempting to replay it now was excruciating.
I rate it ten turds out of a hundred colonics.
Note: I never made it past KQ7 to KQ8, which I’ve just started, and am thoroughly shocked at the complete departure in playing style from classic KQ SCI… we’ll see.
Carpal tunnel is coming
I’m pressed for time (moving back to the US on Thursday!) and stressed as balls, so this is my brief impression of the new Game of Thrones RTS from Cyanide:
- A cursory glance at the factions in A Game of Thrones: Genesis reveals a number of “totally called it” points - Targaryens and Starks have the best bonus units (with possible exception of the Lannister turncoats and Arryn thieves).
- House Tully, which is universally agreed to be Lamest House Ever, has a SINGER unit. I don’t know how anyone is going to manage to pull that off that in multiplayer without getting trololololed off the face of Westeros.
- The boyfriend won’t play House Lannister on principle because, well, they bang each other and are generally assholes, but in the true tradition of Dune II, I’m not going to say I’d NEVER compromise my virtual morality for money and spies. Plus, a playable Kingslayer is kind of badass.
- Targaryen ravens. I’m sure it’s pretty obvious that giving them dragons would be unfair, but I feel like EVERYONE should have ravens across the board.
- Expansion pack possibilities: anyone gonna throw in House Greyjoy for krakens? Though I guess letting them having krakens would cause the same Targaryen/dragon issue.
- The Night’s Watch obviously can’t be a playable faction, but it would be cool if they could be thrown in as an additional element that players would have to manage in addition to their main house.
A Game of Thrones: Genesis →
agot-genesis.com
If I was physically capable of pitching a tent in my pants, right now it would be the size of a frakking big top: this is a new Game of Thrones RTS game set before the Westeros we know today. GRRM is apparently “supervising” the single-player mode. I don’t know how excited I’m legally allowed to be without exploding and injuring everything around me. As a huge fan of Dune II, this particular RTS-fantasy combo looks like exactly what I need to bide time until D3/The Secret World comes out - either/or would be nice. PWNAGE IS COMING.
Kill Screen: Can videogames make you more effective at work? →
news.killscreendaily.com
PC World takes a look at a couple studies that suggest games may have positive benefits in the workplace. We’ve heard similar things about education — that games create “systems-based” thinking. That is, you’re apply a spread of skills when you play games and that may have implications for…
“Videogames use art direction, colour and storytelling in a very pure way that a lot of movies have forgotten. I have a 12-year-old daughter and we play together, but unfortunately she’s more into Sonic and Kirby. We should embrace games not as a separate universe from movies, but develop the stories using both media at the same time. And I think we can.”
—Guillermo del Toro on games in 2008
