After a long absence, I return with the next Durpthrough session of Fatal Frame IV!
Beware the narrow hallways that make fighting ghosts nearly impossible, the deathly fear of potential game-breaking bugs, the bewildering persistence of that nurse I can’t remember the name of, the REVENGENCE of Ayako as I storm her room for sheet music, the wheelchair lady who somehow pushes herself, and the terrifying black death thing that scares the living shit out of me!
Here we go, another Zelda game; puzzles, bosses, exploring, fighting. You know the drill. Or do you? I never intended to review Skyward Sword, because I thought everyone would buy it and love the shit out of it and we’d all happily talk about our favourite parts and hold hands. Much to my disgust and surprise as I scan the twitterverse and look at sales trends, it seems gamers have let this one slip away. With some time and perspective now I can see why. A lot of games these days make you think, and Skyward Sword does that. The difference here though is that you also have to act.
Skyward Sword is a weird game. It’s lazy and closed off; it won’t play itself. If you want to get anywhere, you have to pick up the controller and ENGAGE. It’s the concept that started video games, and it’s the only reason they ever existed. If you want anything in this game to respond, you have to poke it. Skyward Sword is a naive attempt to put the focus on the actions of the player, and it completely tears apart the passive nature of recent blockbuster games like Skyrim and Mass Effect. Zelda is an AWAKENING. Skyward Sword will have you feel like you’re actually CLIMBING things, and actually wielding a sword. It all comes together thanks to the MotionPlus controller, and it WORKS!
Here we have a lovely piece about one of the greatest games of the last decade, Xenoblade Chronicles. It’s an “amazing game” says the author, Chris Warcraft of GameInformer. It features an “epic storyline” with “engaging characters” and “fresh combat”.
However.
Charles, here.
I have returned from my expedition to northern India, discovering new ingredients for tea and biscuits. Along the way, I stumbled across a fellow archaeologist and a young Chinese boy in search of “sacred stones,” but I firmly refused their invitation and explained they were “not my type.”
Deep within Ferrari: The Race Experience on Wii, lies a card game! Each player is given 33 cards (or 16 if you play half-deck), and on each card is a picture of a Ferrari with the stats of that particular car. The idea of the game is to trump the other player, by picking a feature of your car that represents it best and trumps that same feature on the other players card. The catch is you can’t see the other players card so you have to guess your strengths. Here’s an example; we start a game and I’ve got a 1958 Testarossa that’s rare as hell and costs $12,000,000. I go first because someone has to, and I’m lucky. I don’t know which car the other player holds, but I’m pretty sure it’s worth less than 12 million dollars, so I pick the money category…
