Friday 26 July 2013

Space Quest III: The Pirates of Pestulon

I'm a huge fan of the Space Quest games, they have just the right combination of things I like. Lots of humour, sci-fi references and adventure gaming goodness. The third in the series is one of the best adventure games of the time, if a little short. How short? We'll find out as we play through.
Sierra! So many great adventures (I took this picture at 23:05)

The game opens with our intrepid hero Roger Wilco finding himself on a garbage scow. After drifting in space in an escape pod, I guess it's the best he could hope for. (How did he end up in an escape pod drifting through space? Well, that's all told in Space Quest 2 and isn't really important except for a single inventory item - a glowing green gemstone).
Look at that dithering, making the most of 16 colours.

Monday 15 July 2013

The Steam Sale: Summer 2013: Part 1

Too many games. I often lament that I have too many games, and not enough time to play them all. Then of course the summer sales start, and I end up buying even more games that I won't have enough time to play. I've installed quite a few and I'm trying to get through them all, and I'm doing okay so far. So, here's the list of games I've bought in the Steam Summer Sale so far, and my initial thoughts...

Hotline Miami

The best first, Hotline Miami is a masterpiece. At first I thought it was just too difficult and the control system was abysmal (the controls are awful though, but I got used to them eventually). It puts you in the middle of a murder spree, with your character either drug-crazed, psychotic, or worse. Everything is in garish colours, ripped straight from the worst excesses of the late 80s and despite the graphics being relatively low resolution, the killing is all as graphic as they can manage.

The very beginning... and it immediately gets stranger