Gamer Outraged

I was a big fan of everything TellTale Games and praised the company. All that changed after I played CSI: Hard Evidence on Xbox 360 (yeah, it's not new, but I got it on sale just a week ago). Not only the game itself is much worse than the first two titles in the series (made by 369 Interactive , the developer who managed to capture the essence of the show, in my opinion, unlike TellTale ), but, after glancing at the possible achievements, you can realize how little effort the developers put into it. There is a total of five achievements in Hard Evidence for Xbox 360, and it's exactly the amount of chapters/cases in the game. You complete a chapter, you get the corresponding achievement. This could have been OK if the game offered a completely "on rails" experience. It doesn't as there are a few things you can do different on your playthrough. First of all, after solving each case you get an evaluation which can differ depending on what evidence you collect...

Ben Jordan Case 5: Land of the Rising Dead was the first game in the Ben Jordan series I played, it also was the first one I wrote about. Just to be true to the chronological order of the series, I played it again after finishing Ben Jordan Case 4: Horror at Number 50 and am going to re-write the original post a bit, moving it to a later date. First off, lets take a look at the changes in the Ben Jordan's latest case compared to the previous games in the series. Ben Jordan's portrait has been updated, now it looks more realistic (Deluxe Edition of Ben Jordan Case 1: In Search of the Skunk-Ape featured the updated version as well). To tell the truth, I don't see it as an improvement and think that the original cartoony look of Ben's portrait was more adorable. Simon Booth and Alice Wilkins, friends Ben made in his previous case, re-appear as the lead characters in this adventure. Simon, as well as Ben, received a new portrait. Once again, I find the original portrait ...

It's time to write about another Ben Jordan adventure, Ben Jordan Case 4: Horror at Number 50 . This case leads Ben to a haunted house where he, together with his brothers-in-arms - people in the paranormal investigation business, - gets a chance to come face to face with an evil spirit. In the end, the evil is perished and Ben finds good friends. The plot of Horror at Number 50 is relatively good, even if not that original. Still, I wouldn't say that this is the best of Ben Jordan cases. The problem with the game is that it features an extremely dull gameplay. Most of the time Ben will have to venture into the same rooms and talk to the same people over and over again. I have nothing against extensive conversation, heck, The Moment of Silence is one of my favorite games only because it boasts with long conversations. Sadly, Ben's fourth case consists of almost nothing but conversations, and they are not good enough to keep things fresh and interesting. Other than talkin...

I continue expressing my opinion on Ben Jordan adventure game series. Just to sum up a bit. Case 1: In Search of the Skunk-Ape (both, original and the Deluxe Edition) was a complete atrocity. Case 2: The Lost Galleon of the Salton Sea was pretty good, but a bit boring. This time I am going to write about Ben Jordan Case 3: The Sorceress of Smailholm . Well, without further introduction, I would like to say that this game is the best of all the Ben Jordan games I've played so far. It tells a story about a Witch Cult and a story of love. It's definitely not The Lost Crown: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure , but is extremely good and deeply satisfying! The Sorceress of Smailholm has it all: good graphics, logical puzzles and a swift storyline. There is almost nothing to dislike about this title, but still there are at least two things I found disappointing (if only a bit). First of all, the game is extremely easy. As it came out in the end, there are two different endings, lets call ...

It is really surprising how Francisco Gonzalez managed to recover from the piece of shit that was Ben Jordan Case 1: In Search for the Skunk-Ape with the follow-up title in the series, Ben Jordan Case 2: The Lost Galleon of the Salton Sea . The game is funny and the plot, even though a bit boring, lacks the stupidity of the predecessor. Case 2 looks exactly like the original release of the Case 1. It has the same ugly thick gray frames around all the dialogue messages (I don't understand why the frames used for character portraits were not utilized for dialogues as well, they look very neat) and the same horrible blue game menu which is not harmonic with the rest of the game looks. Nonetheless, the game is visually appealing, but what is most important, the story is tenable. The sad part is that the length of Ben Jordan's second case is only moderate at best. Without a doubt, it is much longer than that of the Skunk-Ape case, but still is very humble, considering all the game...

Adventure Game Studio freeware game engine created the perfect opportunity for people who can draw even a little bit to create great adventure games. There are plenty of games using that engine which are truly wonderful and exciting. Not surprisingly though - with an easy to use, flexible tools at the disposal there is no limits but imagination. There are, of course, plenty of terrible games as well. What is astounding, at least for me, is that some of not so good AGS games are highly praised by the community. I am going to talk about the first game in the Ben Jordan adventure game series, Ben Jordan Case 1: In Search of the Skunk-Ape . There are two versions of the game available at the moment, the original one and the Deluxe Edition. There are plenty of differences between the two of them, so I played them both in a row. Without a doubt I can say that this title is total crap, deluxe or not. To explain my opinion better, I will have to mention the key plot elements (I giggled when I...

Well, I've been away from the Internet for about three weeks now and had a chance to play a lot of freeware adventure games created using Adventure Game Studio game engine. At first, I was very excited about those games as they were very well done considering them being freeware and developed by a single person (mostly). Still, after thinking about it for a while, I decided that those games could have been much better. In my following posts I am going to review several AGS games and will start with Ben Jordan series created by Francisco Gonzalez .

Recently, I got a chance to talk to Jens Andersson , an ex-employee at Starbreeze video game developing company, now working at LucasArts . Jens is an amazing guy, not only he was the designer of Enclave , The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (one of my favorite action games of all time) and The Darkness , he also developed an amazing piece of software for Nintendo DS and iPhone - Colors! . In addition to all those things mentioned above, Jens created an independent game called Rorschach . This is a very innovative adventure game. The most interesting part of the game is its dialogue system which revolves around the idea of gathering conversation topics while talking with different in-game characters. The selected topics are stored in an inventory and can be used later on to advance the plot. There is a limited amount of slots in the inventory, so it is important to think ahead and select to carry only the appropriate topics in order to save some legwork. That approach ...

There is one thought that constantly saddens me - there is not a chance in the world that there will be another game as good as Grim Fandango . Never ever. Why? Only because an independent developer couldn't pull such a great game and no major video game publisher will agree to finance something like that, seeing that the world is hooked up on the visually stunning games without caring for a solid plot.