Ever since I started logging my games*, I've found myself actively playing more of them. Sadly, not all of these games merit an extensive treatise, but I still have plenty of notes in my gaming notepad, just waiting to be used in this new feature!
Cookies & Cream DS - Fun action-based puzzling except...
Ahh yes, DS-based hyperventilation. Goddamn DS microphone.
Feed the Head (play) - I like to tinker with heads, and this one is deceptively engrossing.
Sam & Max: Moai Better Blues (S0202) - The Season Two premiere disappointed me, and I'm afraid that the second episode does little to steer the series back on the right track. There's some smart dialogue from time to time, and the appearance of D.B. Cooper is cute (and timely), but every character and device reeks of practicality instead of inspiration. From the transparent switch-based puzzles to the number of identical infants and like-a-look shapes and statues, this is the first Sam & Max game that feels as if it was created around the puzzles, instead of the characters or stories. That said, the series still has some of the best darn title sequences around – and this time it's interactive!
ritMika (play) - If only all games had such stylish art design and cut-scenes. And if only this one allowed you to skip them after an initial viewing.
Dark Cut² (play) - Civil War-based surgery game that, coincidentally, simulates the same way I like to spend my Friday nights: gore-soaked, with copious amounts of whiskey. The only downside to this Flash game is that it'd feel much more at home (and be a lot easier) on a DS than a mouse-based computer. Also, if it were on the DS, it'd knock the piss out of schlock like Trauma Center.
Earth Defense Force 2017: "The bugs are spitting some kind of liquid – is it some sort of bodily fluid?" Sci-fi B-game shooter, well worth playing for priceless (as in, I wouldn't pay for them) lines like that. Sadly, I tired of the repetition and mindlessness of it all within an hour, but that first hour was pretty darn fun.
On a side-note, do you log your gaming, or jot down notes during a play session? If so, how? Notepad? Spreadsheet? Private blog? Or do you just file it all away in your head for later use?
* See my New Year's Gaming Resolutions. Want to follow along? Check out my live gameslog via my Twitter account: gturner_tng.
Correction - 01/29/2008: I previously attributed Moai Better Blues to originating from an unproduced animated script (based on a note in the title sequence), which Telltale designer Chuck Jordan noted is not the case. This article has been revised to note that fact.
#1 Chuck Jordan Jan 29, 2008 05:00pm
Not sure where you got that information, because it's incorrect. The story for "Moai Better Blues" was an original one from the lead designer and the rest of the design team.
#2 Glenn Turner Jan 29, 2008 05:18pm
My apologies, as I evidently misinterpreted the "Based on the unfinished teleplay 'Sam & Max Jump into a Triangle'" bit from the title sequence. Thanks for the correction!
#3 Chuck Jordan Jan 30, 2008 03:51am
Ah, that would be lost on people who aren't familiar with the original S&M comics. They usually (always?) have a title and a nonsensical "based on..." subtitle; it's a running gag.
Thanks for the correction, although it technically wasn't necessary -- I just wanted to make sure that Brendan and the rest of the designers got their due.
#4 Glenn Turner Jan 30, 2008 10:38am
Ahh, yes, that'd definitely do it - unfortunately I still lack the comics (and keeping my eye on the Surfin' the Highway reprint). Thanks again for the clarification!