The Aisle is a very different type of game. It’s a text adventure, but the entire game consists of a single decision, and thus takes less than a minute to play. You’re in a supermarket looking at pasta. What will you do? Pick up the pasta? Move away? Eat the pasta raw? Sexually assault other shoppers? Your decisions are many, and as you play and replay the game, you’ll slowly get more and more of the story. It’s really very interesting.

Play The Aisle

Keepers is a weekly segment in which I discuss games I’ve played that I’ve seen fit to keep after playing. I generally sell a game that I’ve finished, so the only reason I keep one is because I plan to replay the game some day. Classifying a game as a “keeper” is generally a badge of merit.

Point Blank is one of my all-time favorite arcade games. It’s certainly my favorite light gun game. For those of you unfamiliar with the title, it’s essentially a cartoony collection of light gun minigames. Sometimes you’re shooting ninjas, sometimes you’re shooting numbers from 1-20 in order with a strict time limit, sometimes you’re protecting Doctor Dan and Doctor Don from sharks, aliens, or an erupting volcano. There are some really creative minigames in there, and it’s a blast when you’re playing with friends.

I found the Playstation 1 version of the game a few years ago and grabbed it up in a heartbeat. Then I found the sequels and bought those too. The old light gun games only work on a CRT, so I can’t set myself up to play them on my PS3 with the LCD display, but I’ve still got my PS1 hooked up to the CRT in my man cave, and I’ve still got two functional light guns. I won’t be getting rid of my copy of Point Blank any time soon.

I’d never before played an import game. This whole thing was really kind of an accident. Wait – I’m not making any sense. Lemme ‘splain. No, there is too much. Lemme sum up.

I’d been wanting to play Prototype for a while, and when I found a copy the PC version on EBay for $20 whereas it’s retailing for $40, I jumped on it. It wasn’t until after I’d bid that I noticed the tiny text that said “Import Version”.

Upon installing the game, I immediately realized that the install screens were all in Russian. It was as if I was living after the Red Dawn. But with the help of the inkjet-printed instructions included with the game, I muddled through the install screens, making sure to select “English” as the install language.

After that, the whole thing was pretty easy, and I found that the game played pretty much as I’d expect the U.S. retail version to play. With a few exceptions.

I can’t log into GFW Live from the game, which means that I can’t log achievements. I’m not sure whether the achievements alone are really worth $20, but I find that I’m not bothering to collect things I otherwise would since I know my accomplishments won’t be logged. Yes, I’d definitely prefer to have the achievements.

Another thing I found is that I can’t map my mouse 4 and 5 buttons in the game. I can’t say for sure that this is because of the import version, but I googled the issue and found that other people seem to be using their 5-button mice with no issue, so my working theory is that my  import copy of the game doesn’t carry that functionality for some reason. My options are to use Logitech mouse software to map the mouse buttons to letters that I can map to game functionality, or else try out a gamepad controller. I’ll probably end up using the mouse.

Anyway, that’s my story.

I’ve been trying to limit my posts about Street Fighter to one per week, but I’ve been playing the crap out of the game, so it occupies a good bit of the video game namespace in my mind. And although I’ve been having a lot of fun with it, I do have some complaints I feel obliged to voice.

Firstly, since my post full of complaints about Games For Windows Live, I’ve come up with another complaint – a big one. Suddenly, every time I log in, I’m required to manually sign in and enter my password. And the “save my password” checkbox is disabled. Incredibly annoying.

Street Fighter also has the ability to accept challenges from online players while playing in Arcade Mode against the computer. I’ve done it on occasion. But the option can only be set from the game’s menu, not from within an actual battle. The other day, when I started playing against the computer, I found that I’d accidentally left that setting on. I was interrupted mid-game by an online challenger. My mistake. No big deal. But the thing that really pissed me off is that there’s no way to change your status and make your game private without totally exiting that game, which means that I had to start the game all over after having beat some fairly difficult opponents. That’s just bad design.

My remaining complaints are about the actual mechanics of the game. As a long-time Street Fighter 2 arcade junkie, the game mechanics of Street Fighter are in me bone-deep. You can’t block while in mid-air. You can only attack once during a jump. You block high attacks standing and low attacks crouching. The basic physics of the Street Fighter universe.

Some have changed.

For starters, they now allow limited juggling. While juggling was one of the things I hated most about Mortal Kombat, I can mostly tolerate the way it’s handled in Street Fighter 4. Aside from the “crumpling” effects provided by level 2 or 3 focus attacks, juggling can only be done with an ultra combo. This isn’t too bad, and doesn’t break the game. No problem.

The thing that really pisses me off is the change to throwing. It used to be canon that anyone in the process of standing up after having been knocked down was immune to throws for a split second. This meant that you’d never stand right next to someone as they were standing up, cause you’d always be thrown by a player who knew what he was doing. This was a big equalizer to help someone who was totally getting his ass handed to him. This has changed – the immunity is gone. You can now be thrown the instant you stand up. What this leads to, especially when playing against the computer (which has perfect split-second timing) is being thrown as you’re standing up before you have a chance to do anything. This can be repeated infinitely. This actually looks like you’re being picked up off the ground and thrown. It’s ridiculously cheap, and I’m a bit upset at Capcom for removing the throw immunity. When you’re fighting a computer-controlled Abel or Zangief, it’s ridiculous.

Lastly, the change to the Dragon Punch motion. It’s been made “easier”, which I imagine will piss off all veteran Street Fighter players who’ve had the forward-down-downforward motion ingrained into long term muscle memory. I have no issue with other players being able to execute the motion more easily – my issue is with the fact that the newly created shortcut motion is downforward-downforward. How many times do you move the joystick in that direction twice when you’re not looking to do a dragon punch? The net result of the newly created shortcut is that dragon punches come off all the time when you’re trying to do something else. It sucks.

Despite these complaints, I’ll likely continue to play Street Fighter far too often over the coming weeks and months. I’ll just bitch about it a lot.

Video game documentaries aren’t very common. Many people are aware of King of Kong, but how many people can name even one other? Enter Tetris: From Russia with Love, a documentary about Alexi Pajitnov and his creation of the classic game Tetris. You probably know that the game was created by a Russian in the days of Soviet USSR, but what about the politics and legal issues arising from a game created in a Communist country becoming a commercial (capitalist) success?

Tetris: From Russia With Love, part 1

Tetris: From Russia With Love, part 2

Tetris: From Russia With Love, part 3

Tetris: From Russia With Love, part 4

Tetris: From Russia With Love, part 5

Tetris: From Russia With Love, part 6

I’ve been a big fan of Desktop Tower Defense for years – I even bought the DS version, which is great. But it wasn’t until recently that the “pro” version came out online. It’s free, and there are tons of scenarios and levels to play out. Desktop Tower Defense is inarguably amongst the best of the free online flash games.

Play Desktop Tower Defense Pro

Keepers is a weekly segment in which I discuss games I’ve played that I’ve seen fit to keep after playing. I generally sell a game that I’ve finished, so the only reason I keep one is because I plan to replay the game some day. Classifying a game as a “keeper” is generally a badge of merit.

After having played Far Cry 2, I came to a realization. I like the original Far Cry game better than its sequel. Why? The graphics are obviously better in the second, and the wildfire effects in Far Cry 2 are very cool. It may actually have to do with the open world. I’ve never been much of a fan of open world shooters. I hated S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and I certainly didn’t like Fallout 3 as much as I liked Fallout 2.

The original Far Cry was a great game. I prefer linear gameplay for my shooters, and Far Cry did it very well. The story in Far Cry felt closer to the story in Half-Life or Uncharted than the stories in Far Cry 2 or Grand Theft Auto. To me, linear gameplay gives the designers better opportunities to deliver set pieces and meaningful encounters. As it stands, Far Cry is definitely amongst my top five shooters evar.

While I didn’t love The Witcher, it did have some fairly decent music. Probably the main reason I didn’t like the game is because it uses the same engine as the original Neverwinter Nights – the engine was my main complaint about NWN too.

Complaints aside, I hope you enjoy listening to the music from The Witcher, because I don’t have very much to say about the game.

Lungfishopolis MusicCast: The Witcher

It’s been a couple weeks since I finished playing Ghostbusters, and I figure that if I don’t write down my thoughts on it now, I’ll probably forget entirely.

My take on the game is some good, some bad, like most games. What the game really nails is the feel of the original Ghostbusters movie. When you first fire that proton stream, the sound of it and the feel of it are so excellent and so exactly like the movie that it’s difficult not to smile. Likewise, the voice-overs by the original actors are spot-on. Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis are absolutely brilliant, and Ernie Hudson also does a good job. I have to say that I was disappointed by Bill Murray’s performance, and the annoying strut that they gave his character in the game didn’t help.

Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis were also the writers on this project, and they did an excellent job. There are some very funny and quippy one-liners in there. While it probably wasn’t the quality of the original movie, the humor is far above average for a video game.

That’s the good stuff. Now for my complaints. Firstly, the game is way too effing hard. After getting killed a dozen times by some ghost candlesticks, I restarted the game on “casual” difficulty. And while I almost never died on this difficulty, there was one spot at the end that I nearly couldn’t get through. I am not a wuss. I play most games on “normal” difficulty and do well. But Ghostbusters is in need of some major difficulty tweaking.

My other complaint is bugginess. At least 3-4 times in the game, I’d find myself in a situation where I couldn’t progress. A door wouldn’t open, a boss wouldn’t appear, or some other game trigger that was supposed to fire simply wouldn’t. In this situations, I’d quit out, reload a save, and without fail it would work just fine the next time. But these are serious bugs, and they were seriously annoying.

Overall, I’d still recommend the game. It was a good game, and if you’re a fan of the original Ghostbusters movie, you’ll probably have a lot of fun with it. But when you pick it up, for the love of God, save yourself some agony and start on the easiest difficulty.

As I may have mentioned, I’ve been playing a good bit of Street Fighter 4 of late. I’ve always enjoyed switching up characters, and always held a disdain for those who refuse to play any character other than Ken, Ryu, or maybe Akuma. Guile is arguably my best character, but I’ve always loved playing the characters who everyone else thinks stink, and getting good enough with them to win fights. Currently, I’m doing that quite a bit with Dhalsim and E.Honda. Although I’m by no means a master with either, I can now hold my own with them most of the time.

When I speak of the “original eight” characters, I’m talking about Ken, Ryu, E.Honda, Chun Li, Blanka, Guile, Zangief, and Dhalsim. In the original Street Fighter 2 game, they were the only playable characters. I still remember visiting Riverside Park in Agawam, Massachusetts where I first saw a Street Fighter 2: Championship Edition machine. “You can play as Sagat? Whoa!”

I think I’ve made my opinions on Ken and Ryu known by now. They were my go-to guys for years in the game when I couldn’t beat someone, but I’ve begun playing them less and less, mostly as a reaction to how many people play those damn characters. Mainstream equals uncool. I will say that whereas I used to think Ryu was cooler, it now seems that Ken is a more fun character to play.

Guile is probably overall my favorite character in the game, despite the fact that he talks like a robot in Street Fighter 4 and has serious posture problems. I just feel very comfortable playing Guile for some reason. And it seems that he’s kept his air throw. I really need to use that more.

I’ve just started to get better with Chun Li. I’m having a much harder time using her head stomp than I used to – maybe that’s because the people I’m fighting now have gotten better at anti-air. But Chun Li has gotten a lot of really fun new attacks. She has a double punch that she can use in the air or on the ground, she’s got a fairly easy single-button kick combo that ends with her vertical anti-air kick from Super Street Fighter 2. You can’t really use it as anti-air anymore, but fans of Chun Li should recognise the animation. She also has a forward-flipping split kick attack that’s very fast and has good range. They’ve taken out the split-second immunity she used to have when starting a spinning bird kick, but I think the other new moves make up for that.

Blanka is insane. I think I’d forgotten that until I started playing him recently. He rolls into a ball and flies all over the screen like a superball on crack. He has a move that lets him jump through you and attack from behind, he can duck or slide under fireballs, and you can change up the timing on his super and ultra attacks. Blanka is rated surprisingly high on the eventhubs character ranking page. I’m surprised that I don’t see more Blankas out there. Back in my arcade days, Blanka was considered “cheap”, and I made a habit of never playing him. But at least in my own mind, that characterization has faded. The dragon punch characters are the cheap ones now.

Zangief is ranked way higher than I’d have guessed, but he’s also the only one of the original eight characters I haven’t used at all yet. One of my favorite things about him back in Street Fighter 2 was that he had at least seven or eight throws – I’m not sure whether he still does. I’d love it if they left in the chest grab move. That one was hilarious when used against Chun Li.

Honda is another character I’ve found to be far more badass than in Street Fighter 2. His flying headbutt is amazingly effective, and his new buttslam throw does a lot of damage. He’s easy to trap with fireballs, but you don’t want to let Honda get you cornered. I beat the game with Honda practically on one virtual quarter.

I saved Dhalsim for last because I’ve had so much fun playing him. Dhalsim is slow and can be really difficult to play well. To me, the key to playing Dhalsim is knowing exactly where each of his punches and kicks go, and using them. His jumping fierce punch and medium kick go at a downward angle, and are very useful when used just before he lands, when most players think themselves safe. His standing hard kick has really good range and can knock characters out of the air when they’re still very far away. And his standing fierce punch has amazing range and does tons of damage. His jab fireballs move slowly enough so that you can throw one and then do other things, like walk up behind them. And his two-hit headbut is great for comboing into a yoga flame. The new Yoga Pillar move is awesome for avoiding low attacks, but I don’t use it nearly enough. That combined with his slides can get you past any fireball in the game. And for mobility, there’s nothing like his teleport. The fact that Dhalsim can now teleport from mid-air makes it a fantastic move for escape or surprise attack.

If you’re still reading, you’re likely a Street Fighter fan. If you’re playing Street Fighter 4 on the PC, look me up. My GFW Gamertag is ghowley.