I’m An Amoral, Scum Sucking Lawyer

Or at least, thanks to the Nintendo Dual Screen, I can play one on the go.

Even though I don’t have to review it, I still managed to get a hold–courtesy of GameAxis–of a copy of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney.

Yep, that’s right, a video game about lawyers.

You play the eponymous lawyer in question (who is of course, the rookie) as he wrangles his way through the labyrinth of courtroom drama, and by God, the game really is dramatic. The way to success is to psychologically assault witnesses on the stand, studying your court documents and evidence, and using it pick apart testimony. IE, a witness claims they must have heard something on the victim’s television, and you present evidence showing that the building was having a power blackout, thus showing a discrepancy in the statement and giving you more ammunition to badger the witness with.

It’s the kind of game you can only play once since once you know the story, and you know the arguments to present and key pieces of evidence to bring out, and the contradictions in testimony to pick on, there’s not much surprise or added content to muck around with. I mean, unless you just LIKE going through courtrooms badgering witnesses…

I gotta’ say though, it’s an interesting premise and it definitely appeals to one personality aspect that video games have thus far ignored. If you are the kind of person that either feels a compulsion–or just enjoys–winning arguments, then this is a quick fix that will allow you to indulge in embarrassing people with their own contradictions without actually having to lose friends or sleep on the couch.

‘Course, you gotta’ have a Nintendo Dual Screen to play it. And if you’re feeling really brave, you can use the microphone function and actually say “Objection!” or “Take that!” to pick your fights. But really, only a super confident, completely unself-conscious individual would have the guts to do that on a train, plane or bus…

More Gaming Goodness

As things settle back into work, more work, and still more work (But now with a Wife instead of a Fiance) I find myself sitting down and playing one of the most beauitful games I’ve ever experienced. I actually ran into it at my favorite gaming store while showing Aerin around, and strongly resisted the urge to let her lend me money to buy it. Then later in the evening when I met the Wife, I told her ‘IT’S HERE!” and she flipped out and we ended up buying it anyway.

It’s called Shadow of the Colossus.

If you’re any kind of serious gamer, you’ve been hearing about this game for months. The magazines have been raving about it, anyone that got a chance to play it at E3, or the Tokyo Game Show went nuts, and now it’s available to the public at large, and I have to say, THE GAME LIVES UP TO THE HYPE.

First off, I have to reccommend this to the Jaded Gamers. You know who you are. You buy every game knowing you’re going to beat it in a matter of a handful of hours, you’ve seen–and trashed–every boss and final boss you’ve ever encountered, you’ve figured out attack patterns on shooters, you’ve got your combos down in fighting games and you are getting to the point where you are bored senseless with games and wondering if there’s anything you HAVEN’T seen anymore. Well you haven’t seen THIS game.

I don’t know whether I’d call it full on by the word or not, but so far, THIS game comes the closest to approaching Art as any I’ve ever seen. There is almost a luminous, palpable quality to the ambience of the game world, the art direction itself is empty, monolithic and beautiful, with spare landscapes punctuated by the ruins of massive construction from some ancient civilization. But the way the shadows play out, the mist clearing in the distance as you approach, even the quality of sunlight changing as the clouds pass and the wind picks up, all of this puts you into this dead, quiet world in a way few games have ever achieved.

The goal is simple and stated right at the beginning of the game. A girl who is important to you is dead. You place her on the altar in a massive, ancient, cathedral like space and a booming voice tells you that if you wish to restore her to life, you must defeat 16 giant beasts that are half organic, half giant statue. And that’s the game. It’s all about 16 titanic boss fights, each one more spectacular than the last.

It seems simplistic, but the atmosphere, music, sound, animation and intensity of the playing “Jack The Giant Killer” bring this game to a whole new level of sucking you in and making you forget the world. It’s really difficult to describe the experience of playing Shadow of the Colossus, except to say that if you ever wanted to see what it was like to live in a fairy tale of sorts, this would be it. This thing bleeds talent, passion and originality at every turn, and if you’re sick to death of another rehash of a GTA/FPS/RPG/Stealth game and want to see something NEW, then this is IT. If you’re a veteran gamer, this will make you feel like you’ve seen a video game for the first time again.

And if you’re not a veteran gamer, you’ll look at it and go “Neat!” and probably want to play it…

Blogger’s Back And So Am I

Whew.

After being out of the loop since Wednesday, I can finally post again.

For whatever reason, when Blogger underwent some kind of database upgrade last week, it made it impossible for me to create any new posts. Now, inexplicably, I can again. Go figure.

I tried reconstructing what I wanted to post on the days when I couldn’t, so there it is below with pseudo-dating to show what was supposed to go there on those particular days. Oh, and I finally managed to finish Indigo Prophecy. Definitely one of the more fun Adventure Game experiences I’ve had in the last few years. It’s no The Longest Journey, but then that’s a hard act to beat. Still, in it’s own way, it managed to provide a different, and very engaging story, that kind of falls apart with some inexplicable tangents to it’s story line in the last act.

Today, I picked up the wedding invitations.

The Fiance made them. They’re not really invites, since we’ve gone and asked anyone we wanted to attend to do just that. They’re actually more keepsakes, and “tickets” for the invited to flash at the Book Cafe where the reception is taking place, so that the staff there will know for sure that no one is gate crashing.

Damn. I’m getting married in 16 days. That’s freaky…

It Is Time For You To LEARN…

It’s a slow weekend, nothing to do but some shopping, some editing and some gaming, but I figured I would do you all a favor and turn you onto something that you really have no excuse to be unfamiliar with now, Infocom Text Based Adventures.

Back in the 80′s this was one of my all time favorite genres of gaming because it was BOOKS YOU EXPERIENCED rather than books you just read. It was like an author welcomed you into his world and let you play around in it, rather than simply being a spectator. Infocom was the big producer of quality games in this department with such titles as The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (Written by Douglas Adams himself!) endearing little titles like Wishbringer, the infamous Zork which started it all, and lots of other fun titles like Planetfall and Leather Goddesses Of Phobos.

Most of these games are classified now as “Abandonware” in that no one makes them and really have no intention of ever bringing them back. However, thanks to the magic of the internet, you can find most of these games free for download if you spend a few minutes digging deep. I’ll get you started though, you can find Hitchhiker’s, Wishbringer and Zork here.

I’m currently giving A Mind Forever Voyaging a shot. It’s one of those games that was hailed as a masterpiece of the genre but at the time of its release, my spending power was limited, and it was $50. If you’re interested in other interesting attempts at interactive fiction, people have since gone on to create their own (I haven’t yet dug up the addresses for those sites yet, but I mean to) and there is one in particular that I highly reccomend by Activision of old. It’s more passive than Infocom games, in that what you did was navigate a series of menus to “unlock” more of the stories, but it was a well told tale for fans of science fiction called Portal.

Check ‘em out, these are gems, and you can be sure not many people will jump on this bandwagon, so you can maintain your snooty “I prefer text adventures” attitude for years to come. Lord knows I have…