Category Archives: gaming

>Heavy Rain – The choices we make…

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Even though the gameplay is very basic and straight forward, and your only real gaming input is strictly limited, Heavy Rain is a fantastic experience.
Gameplay is all about choosing between different options and pressing the correct button in time. That’s pretty much it. And there are some minor flaws: Some puzzles and ways of getting information are just plain stupid and tiresome (the Ann Sheppard scene, for example). Also, sometimes the choices you make really don’t make a difference, which is quite annoying. As is the fact that all teeth look like rubbish, which is a mystery since the graphics overall are just stunning. People walk around looking like Method Man with braces. But then again, this is the American future. Too much Coke, I guess.

If you’ve seen a couple of American movies in your lifetime, you’ll recognize the way this story moves. It plays just like a movie, and therefore it is – in many ways – more than a game. A lot of the scenes are very predictable (even though I have to admit that I didn’t know who the killer was until the very end. One thing you’ll always know with generic scripts is that whatever person they want you to recognize as the bad guy, it sure as hell never is him in the end), but since the atmosphere rule, you tend to forget that. Same thing with the simplicity of the gameplay.

Because what makes Heavy Rain such an awesome experience is the atmosphere. If this is your type of game, you’ll be totally hooked. Because it’s not how you do things, but what you do that really matters and makes this game stand out. It’s all those tiny details, like changing a baby’s diapers and then rocking her to sleep, brushing your teeth and making sure your boy gets his medicine in time; those are the moments that strenghtens the ties of blood, for they depict real life.

The choices we make shape our lives, and there are many choices to be made in Heavy Rain. For the first time in gaming history, here is a game that actually capitalize on the moral decision concept. This is way beyond choosing between a good or bad ending.
How far would you go to save someone you love?

At one point there are five different choices with various outcomes, depending on what you did earlier in the game, and I think there are at least seven different endings with 18 different epilogues. If one of your characters faces an early death, you’ll miss out on a lot of chapters that would’ve appeared hadn’t she died. When finishing the game for the first time you’ll almost immediately need to replay some chapters to see how the story would unfold had you chosen another direction.

Adding to the atmosphere is of course the music. And it’s out there! Not just the official soundtrack, but a lot of the cues and songs that didn’t appear on the official release. I found this link:
http://www.zshare.net/download/784372202efa351f/
Sharing is caring.
And caring is pretty much what Heavy Rain is all about.

>The Secret of Monkey Island

>I’ve hurt my wrists and underarms real bad, so I can’t really play the games I want at the moment (Killzone 2). Good then I found a nice torrent featuring my favourite games of all time: The Monkey Island suite (visit Google, enter “Monkey Island Ultimate” and click the “I’m feeling lucky!” button… You want to be a pirate, don’t you?).

I won’t even start praising these games because then I won’t stop, but in case you don’t know what I’m talking about, or just need some nostalgia, check out these videos:

The Secret of Monkey Island (1990)

Monkey Island 2 – LeChuck’s Revenge (1991)

We’ve come a long way since then.
But nothing will ever beat the feeling of Monkey Island.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008)

>TGM Holic aka jin8 playing Tetris

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Tetris is by far the most popular and probably most addictive puzzle game there is. One dude, obviously from Japan, named TGM Holic / jin8 knows this game inside out. This is apparently his choice in life: to kick everybody’s ass playing Tetris. The video clip below shows his total dedication.
Watch as he kills, and then at 03:03 he kills even more – just to finish off with playing the game in invisible mode! If you don’t believe this is real, check this forum discussion.

Try it yourself here (a rather shitty version).
If you’ve got a Facebook account you can play a much better version here.

>An EA Skate video

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I’m a huge fan of the EA Skate game on the PS3. You can play it like you play the Tony Hawk games – totally over the top, or you can play it like you’re actually skating for real. It’s that good. Checking replays in slow motion shows how amazingly realistic this game really is, and it’s almost trance inducing watching a simple kickflip in super slomo.
I made this little movie to show some (kind of) realistic skateboarding. There are more realistic stuff than this, but most of the crap out there is just insane shit that makes me wanna puke – obviously made by people who are not into skateboarding at all. Hope you like this one!

>Royal Till Death – A skate video

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Royal Till Death from cryptogamic on Vimeo.

Every spring I feel the urge for skateboarding. 15 years of that makes you hooked for life it seems.
What got me going this time was this cool video I found. It demonstrates how damn good the skate videogame from Electronic Arts really is. The Tony Hawk games can suck my ass – skate is the real deal. And speaking of real, that’s what I enjoy most with this game; it’s so realistic it’s almost stupid. And this video, probably done by real skateboarders, shows that. I just love the clean cool lines here, and I firmly believe you have to be a skateboarder to appreciate this game to the max. It’s as hard as real life skateboarding, I kid you not. If I hadn’t been sick this very day I would have been out the door skateboarding until night falls. Guess I’ll have to stay inside and play this awesome game instead… As real as it gets, until skate 2 hits the stores.

Nostalgia: