The Witcher - Enhanced Edition

The well-received action RPG "The Witcher" has in recent months been re-released in an Enhanced Edition set with all new recorded dialogue and interface enhancements. On top of that the box comes with lots of extras such as a seperate soundtrack audio CD.

Can't wait to see it!

Gamespot executive editor fired for doing his job?

This week something... interesting happened. Executive editor & games reviewer Jeff Gerstmann from well-known games site Gamespot was apparently fired, after having given the much-hyped game Kane & Lynch: Dead Men a rather negative review (see it here). Evidently games publisher Eidos didn't take that too well and pressed CNET, which owns Gamespot, to fire Gerstmann.

Eidos have a big ad contract going with Gamespot concerning K&L:DM which explains their attitude. But at the same time this shows a serious problem. Where does it stop when game publishers start interfering with the reviews on sites such as Gamespot? If a game sucks the review should reflect that, and the game publisher should not interfere with that; it's their own fault for not making a better game. The reviewer should not be punished for doing his job. What about journalistic integrity?

Also, can we still trust CNET, Gamespot or whoever to give unbiased reviews of new products? Their credibility becomes utterly questionable.

This sort of thing is totally unacceptable, and companies like CNET and Eidos should be made aware of that. In the meantime someone started up a "Save Jeff Gerstmann" petition.

For more information, check out this ShackNews article.

If anyone reads this post, please add your vote to the petition. In the meantime: Eidos & CNET, you suck!

UPDATE: still no official word, apart from a vague statement by CNET spokespeople and Eidos maintaining they have nothing to do with it. Gerstmann himself reportedly had to sign a non-disclosure paper so he can't reveal the reasons behind his sudden firing.

Warhammer 40K Rocks!

I've been a huge fan of THQ's Warhammer 40K series of RTS games. They're among the best RTS games made in recent years, and have some of the coolest graphics and intro animations out there.

Here's a trailer for a new upcoming game for the Nintendo DS - which I don't have, but games like this make me want to get one just to play this.

The Witcher

Here's a very interesting game that's been in the works for some time. It's called "The Witcher".

I don't know all that much about it, but it seems to be an action-RPG, similar to games such as Diablo & Dungeon Siege.

The game is based on a book and movie by a Polish fantasy writer called Andrzej Sapkowski.

Check out the official game site which upon loading will show you the cool trailer; elsewhere on the site there are links for downloading high-quality versions of this trailer in .WMV and .MOV formats.

Algas - LCD game & toy

This one I got back in 1983 or 1984. This is Algas, a pretty cool looking transforming robot that is also a video game.

No backstory known for this one; was this based on some manga/anime? No idea!

The robot could split in 3 parts; the upper 2 parts becoming tanks and the robot's "spine", hip and legs functioning as a weird looking gun turret thing. Kind of disturbing in more than one way, but anyway...

The central torso part contains the actual game, which is what you start with.

In the game you play the robot, who is under constant attack from bomb-dropping UFO's. The game has three phases, and that is where the different toy parts play a role.

When the game starts, you're in phase 1, where all you can do is stay alive by dodging the bombs being dropped on you. After a while, when you reach a certain score, the game pause and you go to phase 2, which you activate by attaching the upper part of the robot to the torso.

In phase 2 you finally get to fire back at the UFO's. You can't shoot the bombs so you have to keep dodging while at the same time firing back at your enemies.

If you perform well, enough, you get to phase 3, where you attach the legs, and you gain a shield. To be honest I don't remember exactly how this affected game play; IIRC you still had to dodge bombs, but you could withstand more damage, I think. OR maybe you WERE protected from the bombs, I can't say for sure.

If you performed poorly in either phase 2 or 3, after a while you would have to "downgrade", going back a phase and removing one of the robot parts.

I still have Algas - in fact, it's standing on a shelf right on my left, watching my every move! But the batteries need replacing, so I can't play it at this time.

Check these links for more pictures:
http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Bandai/Algas.htm
http://www.handhelden.com/bandai/Algas.html

Invaders of the Mummy's Tomb

This made me remember my first videogame! Although I'm not sure if I had a Merlin before or after this but this is my first videogame with a definite "story".

Invaders of the Mummy's Tomb

It was a small handheld game that was maybe as big as a dollar bill folded in half. The big selling point of it was that it was 100% battery free. It was solar powered! I even remember one fragment of the tv ad for it showed kids using it by the light of one candle which was ridiculous because parents would never let their kids have fire because fire leads to cooking and cooking leads to dirty dishes.

I LOVED this game. LOVED IT. I got so good at it that I could max out it's score and cause it to roll over. And since it was so small and never needed batteries I took it with me EVERYWHERE. In fact, I still have it in my garage someplace. I put an autobots sticker on it and over the years the logo on the outside has become worn and the inner top casing is loose, not because of old age but because I had to open it up once to repair a broken wire to the solar panel. I ended up putting some folded pieces of paper behind it for pressure to make sure the connection was good and taped it back into place.

I can still hear the beeps and bloops and buzzes from the game. The funny thing was that when you took it out of the light it didn't last long and the sound effects would become low pitched and drawn out as it ran out of power.

The way the game worked was that you were an explorer/archaeologist who was trying to get into a pyramid to get the mummy's treasure. It was a purely LCD affair but with a little bit of a child's imagination it was a grand adventure for me back then.

You started out outside on the left of the screen. The only controls were left and right. Snakes and scorpions would come down from the top of the screen and you had to time it so your guy would meet them at the right spot (there were three "rows" for snakes to crawl down) and would automatically kill them with a knife. After about 900 points which was about 90 snakes, the door to the pyramid would open and you could dash inside.

Once you were inside there were spiders and (this is where it gets fuzzy in my memory) a mummy running around. Maybe it was just one spider. I think it was. A mummy would attack you much like spiders did only you couldn't kill him, just avoid him. So timing your moves to avoid him you had to go across the inner chamber of the pyramid and stop next to treasure chest. You'd hit right I think over and over again there collecting treasure as a deadly spider dangled above your head. Sometimes it would stay up for a while then fall on you or sometimes it would hover just above your head. You had to be brave and grab as much loot as you could before you were bit.

You could of course back off, keep avoiding the mummy and then go back for more loot but if the spider bit you or the mummy nabbed you you'd be tossed outside to fight the snakes again. I think you had three lives total.

The thing I remember most was that the game was relentless...it never let up or paused or gave you a moment to rest. It was non-stop so often I'd be close to reaching a new record and I'd have to hit the bathroom or something and had to give up trying only to start over again.

I think the total points you could get before rolling over was 999,999,999 or maybe it was 999,999. I can't quite remember.

There are some better pix and screenshots here.

Home Sweet Home

I mentioned a company called Commodoor in my previous post. Well, here's another one I used to have.

It's called Home Sweet Home. In this game you are played a mother rat (or so I assume) who has to guid her offspring from one place to another. To do this, they have to travel through a sewer system. The problem is, the sewer tubes are in bad shape, putting it mildly, and are missing pieces in no less than 4 places. You have to manually make sure the rats can traverse the tubes by manually allowing the kids to cross the missing parts.