I had almost forgotten how much I enjoy point and click adventures. I have just completed the latest installment of the computer game sitcom that is The Tales of Monkey Island and if I may, I would like to add that it is the finest so far.

This month we find Guybrush trapped in the stomach of a gigantic Narwhale - cue laughs, silly faces, intestinal fluid, a missing inner. It also has one of the funniest mini games since insult sword fighting. It's called the "face off" and is based on those gurning competitions that rural England seem to love so much.



On a more intellectual note, I think Guybrush has evolved..as a character I mean. At first I thought it was his new 3D body and fancy beard, but I think it's his personality that has changed the most. No longer do you feel you are in control of a inept pirate wannabe, stumbling from dangerous situation to even more dangerous situation. It seems he has embraced his stupidity and has made the puzzle thing his preferred style of combat. Where he once seemed to escape most situations by the skin of his teeth, he always seem to have some underlying plan. I hate to say it but almost like Captain Jack Sparrow...argh.

Anyway bring on the next episode, I can barely contain my piratey excitement.

Wow, I honestly didn’t think this would ever happen, well not for a long time anyway. One of my favorite games of all time is getting some serious loving. I think I was about 6 when the very first Monkey Island game came out, I don’t think I could quite comprehend what was going on at the time but I grew incredibly attached to it (like so many other fans). I think this is the game that sparked off my really unhealthily love of computer games.

So what is Monkey Island? It's a point and click adventure sent in the Caribbean.



You play a pirate wanna-be called Guybrush Threepwood who’s sole goal is to become a pirate...a mighty pirate.

There have been 4 games in the series each getting sillier and funnier as the franchise has developed (some may disagree). Until the late 90’s where Lucasarts decided to stop making the point and click adventure games and concentrate on Starwars.

Until now...

The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition

So after god knows how long Lucasarts has resurrected Guybrush and friends. Rather then me explaining what they have done, watch the video below for a great insight in to the process.



Ron Gilbert the creator of the game has also written a great blog post about this thoughts on the games, and has revealed some details of what was going through his mind when him and the 4 other members of the monkey team were making the original game.

One thing I will say is that there was also a second Monkey Island which I think was the EVEN better then the original (Monkey Island 2 LeChucks Revenge). Now I no expert on these things but if I was going to do a special edition of the original game, why not do the sequel at the same time. So I suspect that we may get a the second game sometime in the future.



Now I would have settled for just that announcement alone but wait there is far more...

Tales of Monkey Island

Telltale games who were started by some of the original Monkey Island team have licensed the franchise of Lucasarts have decided to create an episodic adventure of their own.



The game will consist of 5 chapters, with the first one being released on July 7th. The names of the chapters are as follows:
Chapter 1: Launch of the Screaming Narwhal
Chapter 2: The Siege of Spinner Cay
Chapter 3: Lair of the Leviathan
Chapter 4: The Trial and Execution of Guybrush Threepwood
Chapter 5: Rise of the Pirate God



I have already ordered this online, I can’t wait for this to get released... I’m going to have a whole summer of monkeys and I really can’t wait.

Here is an interview with Dave Grossman about the new game.



I recommend you all try these games if you are sick of the blood and guts shooters.

Is one of my favourite games of all time. And I was reminded of its greatness when I can accross this passionate retrospective. It's a point and click and adventure from Lucasarts, when they made games that weren't made of Lego and Starwars.

I think you can find its creators over at Double Fine Productions. A company that still make some wicked games - I think they do the new Sam and Max, which is also worth a gander.

Anyway I also found this rather amazing mask, which somebody has lovingly made - probably for Halloween.


Check out the trailer too, it's one of Lucasart's more accomplished bits of promotion.


You can still buy the game which is pretty cool. So if you have nothing better to do then give it a go. You never know, you may just really really like it. I did and most people are like me...aren't they?

I have been gathering together some more tip-bits on some of the most interesting independent, art house and just plan cool games on the web.

Braid

Braid(interesting name)...lots of blog have been playing test versions of this game and have been saying stuff like:

"The preview build of Braid comprises one of the most interesting, satisfying, beautiful game experiences I’ve ever had..."

And

"Let it be known that, at the time of writing, I envy every single person who reads this preview. Why? Because I’ve just started up … Braid for the first time, and I’ll never get to do it again. I’ll be able to play it again, sure, but it won’t ever be the same as it was just now. I can’t, unlike the game’s protagonist, rewind time and have the same experience again."

Rather high praise indeed, and to be honest. It’s hard not to get rather excited with those kinds of comments flying around. However, I haven’t played it, so I can’t really jump on the cock sucking bandwagon.

But we can all gawk at the rather impressive visuals...and they are impressive!

More games should have this hand drawn look; I think it make’s a game look loved. Like the people behind it actually care about what they are making. Not like these corporate clone games, rendered in their flawless 3D, with their voice acting and online multiplayer modes. Don’t get me wrong, I like a good mass marketed shoot ‘em up like the next guy. But I’m the first to admit that they lack soul – and a game has gots’ta have soul, its just gots’ta

I guess these Independent games are incredibly similar to independent film. The people behind them make up for the lack of finance with ingenuity and good old fashioned hard graft.

It’s a game for the Xbox 360, probably going to be sold through their Virtual console thingy. I think it looks worthy of my time and money. Just so I can give some of my money to the right peoplef for a change.



Braid Blog

Linger in shadow

Now, I have no idea what this is. Is it a tech demo? Is it in game footage?
Kotaku has no idea either. But it does show off the capabilities of the PS3.

Problem is that if it is just a tech demo, then it goes in the box with all the rest. It’s one of the PS3’s major flaws:

TOO MANY TECH DEMOS, NOT ENOUGH IMPLEMENATION OF THE TECHNOLOGY!

Give them games, actual games people can play. Imagine that. If it is a game, then it smells a lot like some kind of Final Fantasy clone.

Love

I’ve decided to follow this one. The MMO that I mentioned a few posts back. It sounds awesome. But I do have one reservation about it. What normally happens when you give people the chance to manipulate anything in a persistent online world, they tend to course utter Chaos. Just look at the mess that is Second Life.



I hope this doesn’t go the same way but it’s hard to see how it won’t. We just love to annoy each other, especially when it’s behind a face less avatar where you don’t have to take any responsibility for your behaviour.

I like the idea that people can create their own story. "Hey, you were that guy that ruined this section of the environment with all these annoying statues"

This is a question has been thrown around a lot recently. Apparently a dead sheep in a box is considered art, but a computer game that can touch you on an emotional level, and just genuinely looks amazing isn’t. Its utter maddness.

The bigger problem is how games are perceived by our ageing population. They seem to think it perfectly acceptable to sit down in front of mind dissolving soap all night, but then they have the gall to question you when you spend more the 30 minutes playing a computer game, and not joining in with their vigil in front of the twat box.

Charlie Brooker seems to be the only sensible voice on TV when it comes to defending our genre. A rare visionary in a sea of absolute idiots.



The BBC are the worst offenders when it comes to games coverage. Their ridiculously ill informed views on gaming actually make me sick to my stomach. I literately shout abuse at the TV when I see some of their reports.

"A computer game will never beat a good book"

That sentence was actually uttered by a BBC reporter when discussing the Wii...I MEAN COME ONE, HOW OUT OF TOUCH ARE YOU!

Phew, I just need to take a moment to catch my breath.

Anyway back to games and art. Here are two examples of what I consider art. They are both made by independent gaming companies, as the creatives in the industry tend to gravitate there.

Love

Little is now about this game, except that it’s a little bit like a MMORPG, little bit like a FPS, and a little bit like an adventure game. Sounds sweet huh?







I’m assuming that these are just bits concept work, but if they try and keep this visual style then I think it will be an incredibly impressive game. One that I will definitely be seeking out for purchase.

Limbo

Again, little is know about this game. I’m guessing that it’s a platformer that will probably appear on the PC, it Might turn up on Xbox Live. But it's worth going to their site and watching the trailer.







I think at some point in the future, games will come of age. It will probably be with my generation. I’m 24, my brother is 31 and we are still in to gaming. We refuse to give up something that we enjoy just because it is seen as immature.

FUCK YOU OLD PEOPLE, AND FUCK YOU BBC!

Phew, rant over!

I've been playing this game for a while and I think I'm getting closed to finishing it...

The Black Temple is the last Dungeon in the Blizzards The Burning Crusade, and is the culmination of a year playing this game. You see, the problem with me and games is that once I have started them, I'm utterly compelled to complete them...and I let little stand in my way. Especially when I can brag to my friends and say things like "Something like 10% of the 10,000,000 subscribers get to see this place..."



Of course this doesn't justify playing it really... I do feel incredibly nerdy when I do play it, but the nerd factor, weighed against the my need to complete games has really only had one winner - the need is far to strong.

This rant has made my sounds more of a geek then you probably thought I was - maybe not, but I thought I was say it has I'm going to try and cover more of the most popular online game the world has ever seen.

So I was talking about the Black Temple...



Yup, this at the present time is the pinnacle of this game. All the story's you have been apart of finish in this place... you are up against one of the biggest characters in the world of Lawcraft and his home really doesn't disappoint.



You and 25 other friends take the role of an invading force. You enter at the bottom through a crack in the wall and slowly make your way higher in the temple. And as you getter higher the music becomes more epic - Lord of the rings Epic.

Your goal is a half demon half elf fallen hero called Iilidan. Hes a nasty piece of work and to add to your problems hes as mad as a hatter. There are load of his mates till kill before you get to him so its not an easy task to put in mildly.

My role is to heal people, its gets affectionately called "wac-a-mole" as I have to time my heals to stop people reaching zero health.

I get to look at these bars all day:



Then I get to press these buttons...in the right order so people don't die:



The problem is that people don't make my life easy, especially against bosses that look like this:



Oh, by the way this is me...hello



I will stop playing soon, definitely very soon. Well...there is a new expansion pack coming out. I might stop at the end of that. You can't do things half arsed, you have to see them through to the end. I need to complete it, all of it. I must appease the gaming need.

I was looking back at some really really old games, because I'm a nostagic kinda guy and I came across this. This is the end sequence of a game called Ultima Underworld The Stygian Abyss and it came out of the PC. It was one of those RPG games that came on 100 disks...or one CDRom if you were rich; we unfortunately had the disk version.



Is it just me or is the music at 1 minute 30 seconds incredibly familiar. You see, I have started playing Zelda the Phantom Hour Glass on my DS and the music from it has been itched in to my skull.

So when I heard the ending theme tune, I thought to myself, "hang on somethings up here!"

So, have a listen to this:



Now you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to pick up the similar themes in the tune.

I put it do you Nintendo that you have ripped off Ultima's score and placed it in one of your biggest franchises (Sorry I have been playing Phoenix Write – Ace Attorney too)

Coincidence or blatant plagiarism, there’s only one way to find out...FIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGHT

UPDATE:

Yes, it seems I have made a rather embarrassing mistake. But in stead of deleting this and pretending it never happened. I'm going to revel in my own stupidity and invite you to leave your insulting messages; GO ME.

Not written for a week or so but the world keeps turning and news keeps coming my way.

Firstly some news which will excite Geeky Tom, one of my all time favourite games is being made into a film. Return to Castle Wolfentstein has been optioned and is the hands of Samual Hadida and Roger Avary, and as people go I could think of worse, namely German sycophants who have no basic concept of what a film is and go by the name of Uwe. Hadida is a solid producer and I really like Avary's writing style plus he's been working with Neil Gaimen recently (Beowulf) so that can only mean good and dark things. But lets face it whatever happens the film is gonna have the supernatural and nazis, not to mention nazis dying in a variety of ways.

The ultimate geek news of the week has been developments in the World of Warcraft movie. Now this confuses me cause quite honestly I can't see it working, fun if it did but I dont see how. The latest update claims a 100 million budget and a release date of 2009, and the they have Thomas Tull producer of 300 on board. Their also after a director in the same league as Zak Synder and Chrsi Nolan which would be amazing I suppose but then they use lines like this:

"The film itself will revolve around a ‘badass’ new hero, with a theme towards conflict and culture - being a War Movie rather than a quest movie, from an Alliance’s perspective."

"Badass"? Who the hell uses the word badass any more, it sounds like such a sleazey exec comment I was actually a little bit sick in my mouth. But what if the other stuff works out? We could be looking at the geekiest movie ever made!!!

Oh and heres some concept art (just looks like art from the game but who am I to argue).



Finally before I go to finish reading Harry Potter (I'll let you know about that whiney little git next, ooh my parents died, get over it) some rumours about the next Dr Who. Could it be the Dr Jekyll is taking on another doctor role? I'm not so sure, I think James Nesbitt is hot stuff after the amazing Jekyll it's only natural rumours like this would get attached to him. We shall see, besides I hear he's going to be working on the next season of Jekyll anyway.

There are rumours spreading around the web that the fools at Lucasarts are in the stages of planning a non Starwars game!

Read the rumour here!

I know, it completely shocked me too. I can just imagine conversations that when down in the Lucasarts board room to start this rumour:

"so....we need a new game"
"We could do another starwars game?"
"I think we have pretty much done every starwars game conceivable"
"Yeah, I think your right"
".....sigh"
"........."
"Hey, Aren't Pirates the in thing at the moment!"
"Yeah your right, we should do a Pirate game...like Pirates of the Caribbean"
"Hey wait? Don't we own the rights to some kind of incredibly popular piratey game?"
"...Star Pirates?, Pirate Wars?"

That's right Monkey Island 5 is in the planning stages....

To be honest this confirms nothing, but it did prompt the Steve Purcell to send in some sneaky artwork to a few Monkey Island fansites!

Completely unrelated?
I don't bloody think so!

UPDATE:

After some more investigation it turns out that these images are in fact from a old project that was going to bring Monkey Island to the big screen. I guess Steve was just pulling our bloody peg leg, or maybe we were letting our excitement get the better of us. Its seems that Lucasarts are content with scratching together a living on their horrible junk heap of overdone franchises, cobbling together games from old bits of discarded Starwars.

WHAT FOOLS, WHAT COMPLETE AND UTTER FOOLS!

I am great big fan of teaser trailers. Especially ones about the end of the world. I know nothing about Fallout 3, though to be honest this trailer is all I need to know. Actually, I lie. I do know that its made by Bethesda who have made some of my favourite games of all time....anyway watch the future of mankind below.

No I haven’t gone completely insane, let me introduce to a game that I have been obsessing about for the last few months.

Bioshock, from the guys that brought you system shock 1 and 2 is a First person shooter set in a 1940s art deco wonder land.


Basically the plot goes a little something like this; your plane crashes in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, by chance you survive and spot a random looking light house jutting out the sea. Upon entering the place and descending the stairs downwards you find a bathysphere (a spherical deep-sea submersible which is unpowered and is lowered into the ocean on a cable). You decide, well hay lets take a trip downwards, I was going that way anyway. This is when it starts getting rather strange; the bathysphere takes you to a huge underwater city called rapture.


Now rapture was apparently created as a utopian Society by some Russian fellow called Andrew Ryan in the 1940’s. Now Ryan envisioned the ultimate capitalistic and individualist paradise with the elite achieving for themselves rather then for the great unwashed (sounds great doesn’t it). Ryan filled it with the best examples of mankind, scientist’s musicians and the place apparently prospered. Oh for all the people who are saying, well how did they breath down there and what did they eat. Well they thought of that didn’t they! The whole place was entirely self-supporting, with all of its electricity, food production, water purification and defense systems powered by undersea volcanic openings, so there. Its starting to sound like a certain TV show that I that I do a podcast for.


Well, when you finally arrive in the city everything seems to have gone to shit. Its vast underground living areas and laboratory complexes scarred by the effects of the civil war and poisoned by biological weapons, there are loads of dead bodies around but you can bet your arse that not everyone is dead. Something definitely went down in this place and I guess the game is to find out why.

Sounds amazing doesn’t it, especially when find out that all the citizens have been genetically modifying themselves to the point when they aren’t really human anymore. What’s even cooler is that you can modify yourself to get wicked abilities, like firing bees out your arms….. I’ve always wanted to cover people in bees.


Roaming around this cities are creatures called big daddies and little sisters. The big daddies protect the little sisters (who appear just to be scared little girls). You find out early on that these little sisters have genetic material you need to survive so you have to do anything to get it and I mean anything. Apparently you don’t actually see the slaughter of these little sisters but they don’t seem to be able to survive the genetic material extraction process, what ever that is.

Anyway the game throws up a lot of moral issues like shall I kill the little girl or not?


I can see this is causing a lot of controversy here in the UK, I better buy it before they ban it.

well, I am been following this game for a huge amount of time.

I don't buy a large amount of games, but Bioshock is definetly going to get bought on the day of release.

Heres the story of the game directly off the site:


Now how can you say that doesnt sound bloody amazing!!!!

I am getting lost vibes from it to be honest.