Penny Arcade

We haven’t gotten around to talking about Castlevania: Lords of Shadow yet, but it ain’t for lack of love. In fact, it’s fair to say that this thing has rendered us more or less speechless.

MercurySteam’s previous game, Jericho, wouldn’t indicate that a project like Lords of Shadow was forthcoming.  It should be emphasized that I liked Jericho, even if I couldn’t recommend it, for all the reasons I laid out back in 2007 - at least a million years ago, as the Internet reckons time.  Novel mechanics and rock-solid worldbuilding were in evidence though; if the studio survived, I wondered what we might see next.

This is what: a game that reaches up from the crust of the accursed earth and tries to seize the moon.  Every part of the game isn’t perfect - its occasionally recalcitrant camera and (at least, to my mind) somewhat choppy melee experience are, on the whole, mitigated and even ennobled somehow by the coherence of its vision.  They become something like the goofy habits of a friend, made diffuse in their aggregated being.

My mouth has hung open and I’ve pointed at the screen, looking over to Gabe to verify that he is seeing the same thing, and that the wonders and terrors taking place on the screen are genuine and not the result of some ancient cache of psychotropic drugs leaching out of my spinal fluid.  An an artistic statement, every corner of this world has something new to tell you.  The mythology is actually interesting, not “videogame” interesting.  There are also, inexplicably, several moments of strong humor in the game - strange slapstick moments that, executed in Lords’ unrelenting Gothic atmosphere, melt that mounting darkness into candy.  You see these moments alongside the others, pitch-perfect dramatics and cutscenes you would never think of skipping, and the love of this developer for this project is unavoidable.

Now, it’s true.  Protagonist Gabriel Belmont might be kind of a dick sometimes.  But he’s dealing with some heavy shit.

(CW)TB

I have been playing a lot of different games lately and I figured I should take a minute and share some thoughts.

Video Games!

Kirby’s Epic Yarn - If you have a Wii this is a must own game. It might even be reason enough to get a Wii if you don’t already have one. It is a fantastic platform game, especially with two people playing cooperatively. It is also one of the most beautiful games I have ever played. You really owe it to yourself to check it out.

Castlevania Lords of Shadow- This is a game that really came out of nowhere in my opinion. I picked it up with no real idea of what to expect and I haven’t been able to put it down. In my opinion this game really has everything. Incredible art, awesome combat, great puzzles, and a fun story.

Medal of Honor - The new Medal of Honor doesn’t feel especially new. I have to admit I only played it for about an hour before I got bored and quit. I have had absolutely no desire to go back to it.

Table Top Games!

Last Night on Earth - I got this from Kara for my birthday and it is a blast. Essentially it is a campy zombie movie that you play out with cards and a board. You have a group of people playing as the heroes and a second group playing as the zombies. The game is full of cliche’s from characters like the jock, the preacher and the nurse to cards that let zombies turn out the lights in a building or force two heroes on the same square to loose their turns while they do it. That last card is actually called “This might be our last night” and as a zombie it’s a super fun one to play.

Gamma World- We played out second game of Gamma World on Monday and once again had a blast. This time I cooked up a little adventure that was set in the ruins of Seattle. The final battle actually took place on the fifty yard line of Quest Field. The cards had every one cracking up as people were playing mutations like “liquid bones” and “huge arms”. Whether you just want to take a break from your regular 4e game, or you’ve never played D&D before Gamma World is something you really do need to try.

Warmachine - I have never played a real miniatures game before and I’ve decided to start with Warmachine mostly because I love the minis. For a long time Tycho had a Harbinger of Menoth sitting on his desk and I thought it was one of the coolest things I’d ever seen. Over the weekend I picked up the Protectorate battlegroup and had a lot of fun just building the models. I have also been reading through the rule book and drooling over all the amazing artwork. I haven’t actually played the game yet but I have a few friends who have also picked up Battlegroups and we’re going to give it a try soon. I’m super excited to give it a go but more than the game itself I am really looking forward to the arts and crafts.

-Gabe out

Just like it says!  Any of the preorders we receive will be signed by the office, and there’s two thousand preordered so far, so that’s a pretty full day already.  If you’re interested though, of you would simply like to hasten our development of carpal tunnel syndrome, here’s the link. [Clarification: Thursday, 10/21 at 11:59 PM PST is the cuttoff.]

(CW)TB