Archive for 2018
Call of Cthulhu (2018) Review
The works of H.P. Lovecraft are a great source for horror with the cold American East Coast being a predominant backdrop for the mysteries of the sea, secret cults, ancient gods, and of course the fragility of the human condition. I’ve always felt these works lend themselves to the written word much better than other media due to the way Lovecraft tends to portray things with suggestions of the indescribable and the subjective way a person’s perspective can twist reality. This is also why in gaming form I find the pen and paper RPG Call of Cthulhu captures the essence of these works because the entire game is much like its source material: interactive works of written (or scripted) fiction. The challenge faced with video games the challenge of taking the themes of Lovecraft and turning them into a form of gameplay that is both realistic and enjoyable. While a few attempts at Call of Cthulhu – a name that is used more for its notoriety and less for an actual connection to the short story – have been made, no studio has really been able to nail the gameplay part. No matter how much I respect the old Infogrames adventure games or Dark Corners of the Earth, all of the Call of Cthulhu titles require caveats when recommending them. As much as I had hoped developer Cyanide’s Call of Cthulhu game, based on Chaosium’s aforementioned pen and paper RPG, would break the mold it fails to overcome the gameplay challenge yet again. Fortunately it oozes the dark and twisted world that is so unmistakably Lovecraft that you may excuse the gaming faults for overall experience.
Horror Obscura 2018: Dark Castle (Mega Drive/Genesis)
In the past Horror Oscura I have explored games which are focused around horror and the use of horror in games you would not class as a horror title. This year I wanted to go back to my childhood and re-visit one of my biggest horrors: Dark Castle on the Sega Mega Drive (Genesis in North America).
Back in my childhood I was scanning the cheapest of the used Mega Drive titles in the retailer “GAME” on the South Coast of England when I came a came across Dark Castle. This was back in the 90s, I saved up my cash long and hard to treat myself to a video game. At a young age I was drawn to dark themes and games that just weren’t well known so Dark Castle, matched that category. Looking at the box now though one may question what I was thinking. The front of the box has a gargoyle on it stuck like old Clip Art on a background of a castle entrance. Not particularly appealing. The back of the box quotes, “climb the ramparts of the Dark Castle and dethrone the Black Knight.” An interesting quote but not a lot to go on. Keep in mind in the UK the back of the box often had a very short description of the game in multiple European languages. The instruction manual also included translation for 6 European languages. Flipping the back of the box over I guess it was the screen shots that appealed. Pictures of a eyeball creatures with hands, zombies looking monsters. Back then the game cost me £12.99 (the price sticker is still on my copy to this day), some may consider that a horror to itself.
So what is this game about? Dark Castle is a 2D adventure platformer. The game is presented as single screen levels most of which you just need to reach the end to survive. Some will require you to solve some head scratching puzzles. As young Duncan your objective is pretty simple: defeat the Dark Knight. However, to do this you need to complete three quests as outlined in the instruction manual titled “Trouble,” “Fireball,” and “Shield.” Completing the latter two will give you a item that will help you in your quest, more on these later. When you begin the game you are literally presented with four doors. Two doors have a “?” the other two “BK” with a shield. BK of course stands for Black Knight. If you are brave enough you could just attempt to take on the Black Knight and finish the game super fast, this goes against what the instructions advises but it can be done. Not so easy if you choose the Hard difficulty setting though. If you go in blind in the game you just have a choose a door and hope for the best.
GHX Ep 34: Stupid Fun and Horrible Clothes
This week Fred and Trees are talking a lot of racing games, including Forza Horizon 4. Sprinkled in are other recent releases such as Dragon Quest XI and Shadow of the Tomb Raider.
The Council Episode 4: Burning Bridges Review
If you have not read our review containing the previous episodes, it’s highly recommended as it’s not only referenced, but we may not discuss many of the mechanics present in previous episodes. This was to prevent redundant comments and move directly into the changes in the current episode. Eventually the link above will serve as the location for all episode reviews. This review contains no spoilers.
Going into episode 4 of The Council I had absolutely no expectations. The story was stagnant, the character development was marred by writing away plot holes with twins and the supernatural, and the gameplay was almost flat out boring. I had grown tired of Louis and this fun alternative take on history because it seemed like the development team was out of ideas. What started as an experiment in alt history along with a modern take on the adventure genre had become a series of fetch quests surrounding a main, but rock solid, puzzle with all plot points stressing answers to “a mystery.” I didn’t think there was anything developer Big Bad Wolf could put in as an explanation that would live up to this fabled mystery. In that regard, I will admit I was wrong, because Episode 4 throws you a massive curve ball and begins to answer questions left and right. Events transpire at a lightening pace compared to what we’ve seen previously and some major events are given out like candy. It also was apparently a good time to introduce a whole new mechanic that seems to heavily null some of the old mechanics, and the confrontation system has become a minefield for your usable resources. The whole game was dialed up to 11 and it all seemed rushed out, which I’m betting it was. While I have to admit I enjoyed playing through Episode 4, it’s frantic attempt to get things back on track came at the expense of it’s largest asset: the previous episodes no longer matter.
GHX Episode 33: Done with Summer
This week there’s plenty of discussion about Fall, which leads to Halloween, which always leads to horror movies when Fred’s involved. Once jumping to video games things shift to the Extra Life 2018 fundraiser, then Trees’ casino nights and video games, and finally a discussion on the Playstation Classic.
Friday at the Movies: The Predator Review
Please Note: This review contains no spoilers or inferences to the overall plot. Non-specific themes, however, are discussed.
These days franchise movies like to stay safe in creative decisions. Often there are no overtly offensive factors, fans are catered to, and the story continues on for better or worse. The Predator doesn’t play it safe with a drastic shift in tone that is largely humorous, but also gives you plenty of action and violence to remind viewers they’re still watching a movie in the franchise. If my mentioning a heavy basis on humor concerns you, don’t be worried too much yet. It’s not Gremlins 2, which abandoned almost all its fearful themes in return for a slapstick comedy for kids, but rather a blend of genres. As such, The Predator is also not afraid to make some offensive lines that add to the dark comedy vibe of the whole feature, but more about my thoughts on that later. If you are one of those fans who takes keeping the cannon alive and preserving the brand as your highest priority, you will no doubt have plenty of issues with this film, but rest assured nothing here is more problematic than the damage already done by the two previous sequels.
GHX Ep 32: Casino Predator
After some initial tech issues, our heroes speak of upcoming adventures raiding tombs and partying in casinos before eventually getting to video games. Austin sparks a conversation on the myriad of titles on Xbox game pass, Fred vents about media personalities that have no idea what they’re talking about, Trees gives what he’s been playing, and it all closes on some Spyro 4 fan creation demos.
GHX Ep 31: Random Strange at the Moose Lodge
Fred and Trees are back! There’s a lot to catch up on, but they do manage to remain mostly on games including God of War (2018), No Man’s Sky, Devil May Cry (2001), Trees gets a Switch, Dead Cells, and the Street Fighter Anniversary Collection. All that along with discussions of the Analogue Super NT, gamers as game designers, and some recent news.
Also Fred is doing Extra Life this year! He’ll be set up with prizes and dates soon, but if you’re game feel free to donate early here: https://www.extra-life.org/participant/316569 Donating early does not disqualify you from any prizes.
Co-Operative Episode 3: Gears of War Ultimate Edition
Fred and Gren get together to discuss the co-op experience of Gears of War, which quickly becomes a discussion about the changes of the 360 original and the extra content of this edition from a 2 player standpoint.
The Ending of Large ROM Sites Should Garner A Different Response
With the recent fall of some major rom sites, and others pulling their own hosted files offline as a response, I’ve seen a somewhat trending reaction from the community that concerns me. My peers are avidly going out and downloading entire collections of games and files from these sites to have on hand should we see the fall of the easy to access rom site. Not only do I feel this will never happen, but this response is flawed and wrong. The response you should be having is to start looking into ways to back up your own games. It’s relatively cheap, free if you don’t need to backup carts, and it will allow you to never worry about losing another game again whether it’s damaged, stolen, or subject to the rare chip/disc rot. Oh yeah, and it’s also not illegal.
A Little Background
Just under a month ago, web site Torrent Freak reported that Nintendo sued loveroms.com and loveRETRO.co over having open access to copyrighted material. For those not familiar, Torrent Freak refers to itself as “a publication dedicated to bringing the latest news about copyright, privacy, and everything related to filesharing.” The web sites in question were owned by an individual, Jacob Mathias, who ran his own Arizona-based LLC that focused on these file sharing sites. Those who work in rom sites specifically tend to not carry certain games and files specifically for fear that something like this would happen. While I’d never been on the site myself, the fact that these sites had direct download links to a myriad of roms (files that represent a cartridge based video game) that included Nintendo’s prime catalog is a big mistake. The one or two sites I used to frequent would pull down specific roms that were re-released such as Virtual Console games and more recently the “Classic Edition” line of Nintendo’s library. This other site also would pull down any game that the publisher had requested, so if you went to most Capcom titles there would be a note that the game was removed due to the publisher’s request. Finally that other site would not host BIOS files, which are proprietary software in certain consoles that are required to get certain emulators working, which it was revealed Mathias’ sites also hosted. Put all of these factors together and these sites had massive bulls-eyes on them for just this kind of response. Nintendo even makes it a point in the suit to call it out, “The LoveROMs and LoveRETRO websites are among the most open and notorious online hubs for pirated video games.”
Gaming History 101 