One Button Bob is a fun little game with a twist. The entire game is played with one button. What that button does changes from screen to screen. It reminds me of Aztec Adventure, or maybe Jumpman.

Play One Button Bob

Although I’m smack in the middle of a big ole writing drought on this site due to real life issues, I thought I’d share my Dragon Age online profile. EA does a lot of stuff that gets on my nerves, and the integration of Dragon Age’s DLC has rubbed me the wrong way a bit, but their online profile system is kind of cool. As you play, your character is continually updated on their site. My main character is a human rogue named Johann, after an old D&D character of the same name I played more than a decade ago. The site shows all your achievements, your main character’s stats and skills, and even what equipment he’s currently using.

You can check out the details on my character here.

SkiFree is not a new game, but I just tried it out. Not a bad distraction if you’re able to download the exe. Give it a shot.

Download SkiFree

Okay, maybe vaporware isn’t the right word for all of these games, although I can certainly apply it to a few here. But there are plenty of games that have been announced but not dated, and I’m eager to play them.

Beyond Good and Evil 2 tops my list. After the teaser trailer, we got a kickass cutscene-looking movie of Jade parkouring through a villiage, on the run from what appear to be Alpha Section troops. But there’s no word as to whether the game will actually be made. Please please mister Ancel sir, make the game.

Half Life 2, Episode 3 is also a game I can’t wait to play. Aside from brief mentions of the integration of sign language into the game, there’s been no real word on it. No release date. But I’m hoping that the brief glimpse of the Aperture Science ship at the end of Episode 2 means that they’ll integrate the Portal world and give Gordan Freeman a portal gun. How much would that kick ass?

Mechwarrior 5 has also been announced, but there’s very little news. I’ve read that they intend to change the game so that light mechs and heavy mechs will all have their individual roles, similar to classes in RPG games. No longer will light and medium mechs be merely stepping stones to that 100 ton assault mech. I don’t know quite how they’ll pull this off, but it should be interesting.

The third (and potentially final) episode in the Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness series hasn’t even officially been announced yet, but you know it’s coming. I had a blast with the first two games. The comedy is totally ridiculous, and very very Penny-Arcade. I love beating up mimes, hobos, and barbershop quartets with garden implements.

Starcraft: Ghost was delayed “indefinitely”. But it seemed to combine two things I really like: Stealth gameplay, and the Starcraft universe. Watching a mutalisk come at you in first-person would be awesome. I really hope that Blizzard picks the project back up at some point.

The fourth game in the Thief series is going by the working name “Thi4f”. With the horrible jumping and climbing mechanics in Thief: Deadly shadows, the developers have quite a ways to go if they want their game to compete in a game climate that includes titles like Assassin’s Creed and Prince of Persia. Given that they have no choice but to improve, the fourth thief game should kick ass.

And that’s my list. Starcraft: Ghost may be vaporware, and maybe BGE2, but most are just undated games.

With Dante’s Inferno right around the corner, why not spend your Friday butchering demons and classic works of literature at the same time?  Ok, so it’s not exactly a free game and you need either a PS3 or an Xbox 360 to play it but hey, I’m new to this whole free game thing.   Hell, I just got a PC that can play Torchlight.

Any way, Dante’s Inferno isn’t a bad demo.  It shows off the combat, the various settings, the basics of the plot and it lets you bust Death in the head with his (her?) own scythe.  It’s also fairly ridiculous, but that’s not always a bad thing.  PS3 folks will probably just laugh and go back to the God of War 3 demo that’s been floating around since June but all you 360 only fans that have always wanted to see what the fuss over Kratos was about, well, this is as close as you’re gonna get without dropping 300 bucks on a PS3.

And hey, there’s boobs and who doesn’t like boobs?

The Dante’s Inferno demo is available on the Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Store.

Yes, it’s another article about stylized graphics. Perhaps I could just say “Stylized graphics age better than graphics that attempt to be photorealistic” and end this article here.

Naah.

I think I’ll show you some comparative screenshots to prove a point that likely doesn’t need a strong argument anyway.

Firstly, let’s start with games from this year. Red Faction: Guerilla, and Borderlands. Borderlands is obviously very cartoony, whereas Red Faction was going for the more common photorealistic look. They both look good. Of course they do. They’re both brand new. But how will they look to us in another five years? Ten?

Let’s look at some older games for perspective.

Both Okami and Tomb Raider: Legend came out for the Playstation 2 in 2006. By this screenshot, they both look pretty good, although I feel that the full-motion cartoon graphics in Okami really would make this example stand out more than it does in a still shot.

Both Psychonauts and Jade Empire came out in 2005. At this point, you can really see that an attempt at photorealism that came only five years ago really looks dated compared to Uncharted 2 or Resident Evil 5. Psychonauts, in contrast, looks like exactly the same cartoony image it always has. It simply holds up better. Click on the image for the big version. You’ll see.

Lastly, let’s go back more than a decade to 1998.

The cartoon images in Grim Fandango sometimes look a big jaggy, but overall they look good. Take a look at poor Eli Vance and Dr. Kleiner in the shot on the right. There was a big leap in graphics between Half-Life and Half-Life 2, wasn’t there?

Yes, my point didn’t really need any proof. But here’s the proof.

I’ve been playing a lot of Darksiders the past couple of weeks taking a whirlwind tour through post-apocalyptic Earth as War, one of the four Horsemen.  Along the way I’ve killed many the demon, rode many the mile and amassed a collection of armaments and weapon enhancements to make Kratos proud.  I found the game to be one of the more enjoyable experiences I’ve had on my 360 in quite some time.

I must admit, given the great time I’ve had with the game, that I’m a bit surprised to see it ranking in the low 80’s on Metacritic.  Now, I know that Metacritic isn’t the best site to look at for such things having seen first hand how their internal translation system turns a C+ into a 58 thereby skewing a game’s perceived quality downward.  Still though even reading through the reviews the common criticisms seems to be that rather than come up with their own gaming mechanics, Vigil decided to instead lift mechanics of off popular gaming franchises, namely The Legend of Zelda, Portal and God of War.

Now, don’t get me wrong, Darksiders does just that, however I have to question whether or not knocking the game for it is a valid criticism.  I say this because we as game reviewers seem to be incredibly tolerant of this when it comes to sequels but incredibly intolerant when it comes to new IP’s.  Take Uncharted 2, for example.  Uncharted 2 is, hands down, the most thrilling experience I’ve ever had while playing video games but it is, at its core, just a refinement of the mechanics presented in the first game, which, by the way, were taken wholeheartedly from other games such as Gears of War and Tomb Raider.  It isn’t the mechanics though that make Uncharted 2 such a great game, although they certainly help, it’s the pacing, the voice acting, the incredible technical achievements that, when all bundled together, make the game so damn exciting.

While we’re on the subject of unoriginal games you don’t have to look much farther than Gears of War 2 and The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess.  Both games are sequels, both games build upon, or refine mechanics created in earlier games and neither do much to move the franchise into new territory yet both are very highly rated.  It seems that we, as reviewers, are more than happy with more of the same if those same mechanics are presented in the franchises we expect to see them.

On this, I gotta call bullshit.

Now, if you want to argue that Darksiders didn’t implement the cribbed mechanics in a compelling way then I think that’s a valid criticism.  Personally, I wouldn’t agree with you, but that’s just my opinion and what works for me doesn’t work for everyone.  Slamming the game because it uses game mechanics that we’ve come to love in other games is patently ridiculous.  Nintendo fans the world over always complain about the long lengths of time between Zelda sequels.  Fans are similarly vocal about wanting a more mature, more violent take on the franchise, although I personally don’t think Zelda is the place for blood and guts.  When it comes to Portal, Valve develops sequels according to their own strange whims and who knows when a sequel for Portal will be coming, if one does at all.   So we want more Zelda and we want more Portal and here a game gives it to us, wrapped in its own style with its own world, story and characters and we’re supposed to say “no thank you” simply because it didn’t come from Nintendo or Valve?  Yeah, again, I gotta call bullshit.

The simple fact is that not all studios can come up with a new game mechanic that changes the world of gaming.  It’s simply not possible.  There has to be room in gaming for studios that can take existing mechanics and build compelling games around them.  Why we’re tolerant of first person shooters, a collection of mechanics that hasn’t changed in years, yet not so for something like Darksiders is not only stupid, but hypocritical.  It also can’t be terribly comforting to budding, young game designers to think that the only road to critical praise lies in either creating a completely new gaming mechanic or in getting work on an established sequel.

Now, I’m not saying that Darksiders is perfect, but I do think it’s better than that aggregated Metacritic score would lead you to believe.  It’s certainly better than Gears of War 2 a game that somehow managed to use the same mechanics as its forebear yet take a step backwards at the same time.  I love Zelda and while I don’t feel that it is the appropriate franchise for blood and guts, there are times that I want to play a game that combines the mechanics of Zelda and the visceral feel of a game like God of War.  Darksiders does just that and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

It’s easy, as a reviewer to fall into easy critical traps and I’m of the mind that knocking a game for using another game’s mechanics is one of those traps. If I go to a restaurant and order a bacon cheeseburger, I’m not upset that the chef took a beef patty, cooked it and then put cheese and bacon on it.  That’s what I wanted and while I may be happy to entertain some sort of alternate take on the sandwich, for the most part, I want what I ordered.  There has to be a place in gaming for bacon cheeseburgers where the only criticism is based on how good it tastes, the quality of the presentation and how well it fills you up.

Darksiders may not be incredibly original but it is one damn fine bacon cheeseburger.  For me, for right now, that’s more than enough.

Ever crave a low-resolution, ridiculously difficult game? Then Dungeon is for you. No, I didn’t get very far. Maybe you will.

Download Dungeon

I’ve often heard podcasters and other videogame journalists discuss 1998 in reverant tones. To hear many people talk about it, all the most amazing older games were released in 1998, and no year since has had such an amazing list of titles.

Let’s take a look at what games were actually released in 1998. Baldur’s Gate. Half-Life. StarCraft. Ocarina of Time. Metal Gear Solid. Thief: The Dark Project. Grim Fandango. Fallout 2. Resident Evil 2. That’s eight legendary titles, five of which launched their own very successful game franchises, the other three being sequels in successful game franchises. When you add Rainbow Six, Unreal, Banjo-Kazooie, and Final Fantasy Tactics into the mix, 1998 was one impressive year.

So let’s take a look at the decade between then and now and try to figure out whether 1998 is truly as good as it seems to have been. A sort of software release year death match, if you will.

1999.

Prince’s party year gave us Silent Hill, Planescape: Torment, Everquest, System Shock 2, Baldur’s Gate: Tales of the Sword Coast, and Super Smash Bros. for the N64. Not bad, but certainly no 1998. We also got Descent, Final Fantasy VIII, Ultima: Ascension, and Donkey Kong 64.

2000.

The Y2K year brought us The Sims, Deus Ex, Diablo 2, Baldur’s Gate 2, Thief 2, Icewind Dale, Resident Evil: Code Veronica, Vagrant Story, MechWarrior 4, Final Fantasy IX, and Majora’s Mask. A pretty good haul, but only two franchise-starters. Diablo 2 and Baldur’s Gate 2 were certainly both huge, but it’s no 1998. Sacrifice, Chrono Cross, Escape from Monkey Island, and The Longest Journey were also released in 2000.

2001.

The first year of the new milennium gave us Halo, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Max Payne, Ico, Arcanum, Grand Theft Auto 3, Devil May Cry, Metal Gear Solid 2, Advance Wars, Dragon Warrior VII, Silent Hill 2, Final Fantasy X, and the Throne of Bhaal expansion for Baldur’s Gate 2. Some good stuff, but it still can’t compete with 1998.

2002.

In 2002, we got Neverwinter Nights, Dungeon Siege, Morrowind, Battlefield 1942, Kingdom Hearts, Ratchet & Clank, Splinter Cell, Warcraft 3, Jedi Knight 2, Metroid Prime, and GTA: Vice City. Once again, slim pickings compared to 1998.

2003.

2003 brought us Beyond Good & Evil. Already sounding good. Also, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Deus Ex, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Galactic Civilizations, Fire Emblem, Wind Waker, Mario Kart: Double Dash, Max Payne 2, SimCity 4, Civilization 3, Silent Hill 3, Devil May Cry 2, Jak 2, and the first Call of Duty. Good year. Comes fairly close to 1998. But Prince of Persia, KotOR, and Deus Ex don’t match up to Baldur’s Gate, Half-Life, Starcraft, and Metal Gear Solid.

2004.

In 2004, World of Warcraft came out. Also, Halo 2, Half-Life 2, Far Cry, Katamari Damacy, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, Fable, Killzone, Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines, City of Heroes, EverQuest II, Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth, Myst IV, The Sims 2, Thief: Deadly Shadows, Doom 3, Knights of the Old Republic 2, Metal Gear Solid 3, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Metroid Prime 2, Silent Hill 4, Jak 3, Final Fantasy XI, and Unreal Tournament 2004. Lots and lots of releases. But in my opinion, the big ones don’t quite reach the caliber of the games released in 1998.

2005.

2005 might be the first year that’s a true contender to 1998. A bit part of that is that 2005 is when the Playstation 2 really reached its peak. I’m still of the opinion that the Playstation 2 might be the best game console ever. In 2005, we saw the release of Guitar Hero, Resident Evil 4, God of War, Shadow of the Colossus, Psychonauts, Jade Empire, Indigo Prophecy, Civilization IV, Doom 3, Lego Star Wars, Dungeon Siege 2, Killer7, Call of Duty 2, Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, Condemned: Criminal Origins, Mario Kart DS, Destroy All Humans, Meteos, Lumines, Nintendogs, and Guild Wars. Guitar Hero, God of War, and the Lego games became big franchises. Resident Evil, Civ, Call of Duty, Prince of Persia, and Doom were already big game franchises. And there are some other excellent games in the mix too: Shadow of the Colossus, Psychonauts, Jade Empire, and Indigo Prophecy are big favorites of mine. It really is amazing how many of the good games in 2005 were Playstation 2 games.

The sheer volume of games blows 1998 away, especially considering that 2005 also saw the release of GTA: Liberty City Stories, The Matrix Online, Quake 4, Age of Empires 3, Dragon Quest VIII, Advance Wars: Dual Strike, and a couple Warioware games. Call me a heretic, but I’m willing to say that 2005 was at least the equal of 1998, and if you like enough of the abovementioned games, you might consider it superior. Let’s keep looking at later years.

2006.

2006 is when the current generation of consoles showed up. This brought us a great list of games including The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Gears of War, Oblivion, Okami, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, Company of Heroes, Final Fantasy XII, Resistance: Fall of Man, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Titan Quest, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Prey, Chromehounds, Dead Rising, Splinter Cell: Double Agent, Star Wars: Empire at War, Dreamfall: The Longest Journey, Tomb Raider: Legend. The volume of games has gone way up. There were also a lot of sequels: Neverwinter Nights 2, Galactic Civilizations 2, LEGO Star Wars 2, Kingdom Hearts 2, Battlefield 2, Battle for Middle Earth 2, Guitar Hero 2, and Call of Duty 3. The Nintendo DS Lite also came out, and brought with it games like Metroid Prime Hunters, Brain Age, and New Super Mario Bros. Perhaps not quite as good as 2005, but the XBox 360, Nintendo Wii, and Playstation 3 were still new.

2007.

In 2007, we saw some downright amazing games. My “best-of” list includes The Orange Box, BioShock, Rock Band, Mass Effect, Halo 3, Super Mario Galaxy, Crysis, Assassin’s Creed, Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, God of War 2, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass, Call of Duty 4, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, and WoW’s Burning Crusade expansion. Those were the good ones. But there was also a lot of what I think of as fluff: The Witcher, Warhawk, Contra 4, Eternal Sonata, Heavenly Sword, The Darkness, Overlord, Lair, Stranglehold, Brain Age 2, Metroid Prime 3, Ratchet & Clank Future, Tabula Rasa, and Lost Planet. But even with the fluff, that first part of the list is seriously impressive for one year. It’s very hard to look at 1998 and make an argument that it was a better year than 2007.

2008.

2008 made 1998 its bitch. No More Heroes, LittleBigPlanet, Dead Space, Grand Theft Auto 4, Fable 2, Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead, Metal Gear Solid 4, Super Smash Bros Brawl, Rock Band 2, De Blob, Sins of a Solar Empire, God of War: Chains of Olympus, Supreme Commander, Red Alert 3, Mario Kart Wii, Boom Blox, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Gears of War 2, Resistance 2, Valkyria Chronicles, Far Cry 2, Mirror’s Edge, Prince of Persia, Saints Row 2, Call of Duty: World at War, Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, and the second Penny Arcade game. You might not like every one of those games, but if you do like video games, there’s going to be more than one in that list that you like. The fluff games in 2008 included Too Human, Army of Two, Condemned 2, Dark Sector, Crysis Warhead, Devil May Cry 4, Haze, Lego Indiana Jones, Lego Batman, Silent Hill: Homecoming, Wii Music. Even those aren’t horrible.

2009.

So how does this year stack up to 2008, 2005, and 1998? We’ve got Dragon Age: Origins, Street Fighter IV, Uncharted 2, Borderlands, Modern Warfare 2, Demon’s Souls, Brütal Legend, Trine, Torchlight, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Assassin’s Creed II, Left 4 Dead 2, Scribblenauts, Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Resident Evil 5, Ghostbusters, Assault on Dark Athena, F.E.A.R. 2, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Red Faction: Guerrilla, Muramasa, Prototype, inFamous, Wolfenstein, Fat Princess, Galactrix, Halo Wars, Killzone 2, Bowser’s Inside Story, MadWorld, Fl0wer, Resident Evil: Darkside Chronicles, and the Punch-Out remake.

Wow. Just… wow. When you look at it this way, it becomes fairly clear that the quantity of games is going up, and the quality, while it may fluctuate from year to year, really isn’t going down. Very little fluff in 2009. The Conduit, Overlord 2, maybe Dead Space: Extraction and Muramasa. But even games like Bionic Commando and Still Life 2 seem pretty good, although I haven’t played either.

2010 is looking fantastic too, with games like Starcraft 2, Heavy Rain, No More Heroes 2, Alan Wake, God of War 3, Bioshock 2, Mass Effect 2, Final Fantasy XIII, and Alpha Protocol. Who knows what else will be announced?

For a game that was created from start to finish in 17 days, and was allowed to have no higher than a 100×100 pixel resolution, Vignettes isn’t half bad. Rather than say more, I’ll direct you to the Indigo Static website, where you can read the creator’s commentary.

Download Vignettes