Day of the Tentacle - CDROM

I had some bad experiences with adventure games in the 1980s, both text and graphic adventures that stopped me dead in my tracks by either having a puzzle so obscure as to be unsolveable or a puzzle that require the exact parser for the puzzle to be solved. I recall once adventure game that had a word incorrectly spelt in the parser, meaning you could only solve the puzzle by mispelling the object.

Well all that changed with Lucasarts which remapped the adventure gaming scene with Manic Mansion. I did play it, and its follow up Zak McKraken and the Alien Mindbenders but it was only the adventure The Secret of Monkey Island did graphic adventure games become fun to play and laugh out loud funny as well.

Day of the Tentacle is essentially Manic Mansion 2. I had been meaning to play this for many years since I downloaded and install SCUMMVM (the Script Creation Utility for Manic Mansion Virtual Machine), essentially an emulator for running any of the SCUMM games and others.

Whilst some of the humour had dwindled, the spark and ingenuity hadnt, and puzzles and problems I had deliberated on for days came back to me very quickly.

Im looking forward to finding the time to play through the Sam and Max Hit the Road CD-ROM as well.

Planning for a Month Alone

My wife and children are off on holiday in August for a whole month, which gives me just over 30 days to play console games. There are quite a few I want to go through from start to finish and also games that i've yet to finish.

Ive broken them down into machines

Wii
Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2
Super Mario Bros Wii
De Blob - I finished the first game a few years back and semi started the sequel but never finished
LEGO series - I have all the Lego games, here is my chance to play them all - please...

Xbox360
Halo 3
Rock Band/Guitar Hero
Dead Space 1 and 2 - Ive finished 1 already and halfway through the 2nd game, but want to experience them from the start.
GTA IV - I bought this but never played it much. I bypassed it for GTAV. I will go back to it though.

PS3
Dead Space 3
Uncharted 2 and 3

If You Live in the Past, You'll Live Like a King

Bought Dead Space 3 and Rayman Origins for the Playstation 3. Hardly games you'd say where in the same genre.

I was leant the first Dead Space game for the Xbox360 and whilst I dislike horror survival games, especially Resident Evil, I was hooked by this game that genuinely scares from start to finish. I have the sequel also for the Xbox but havent yet finished it. I know DS3 got average reviews, and was criticised mostly for focusing less on claustraphobia elements and more on action, but I intend this summer to complete all 3 games back to back.

Rayman Origins is just one of those games thats great for the kids. For those of you who care to know, I have 3 daughters to whom Im introducing all kinds of games to, but especially cooperative team games like Kirby, Mario and Rayman. The previous 3 games are for the Wii, but after having played Little Big Planet 1 and 2, Id like to upgrade their game playing to a bigger hardcore console.

Uncharted 2 - PS3

My adventure with this game continues.

The music continues to be an inspiring mix of cinema and US TV cop show quality.

The graphics and engine work better and smoother. There is a lot more blurring when focusing on targets.

The game is a continuation of the original, i.e. the gameplay types work seemlessly. Gunfights, Puzzle Solving and the Exploration.

The dialogue is generally strong, but the mcguffin to get you into the story/plot is a little bizarre. I hope the game as it goes will reveal the background history between the main characters.

Again, I can see how The Last of Us followed this game perfectly, as the hide and seek and stealth elements along with the gunplay are identical. I did start playing the 3rd installment of Uncharted, but glad I abandoned it in favour of the first 2 games first.

PS3 Singstar

So its my 8year old daughter's birthday this weekend and she does show some interest in music and singing, so at my wife's request I bought her Singstar for the PS3. Its certainly better and more supported that the pathetic XBox360 version called LIPS.

It has virtually the same mechanics, but works seemlessly and has the added bonus of allowing you to play content from other Singstar games, both on the PS3 and PS2, Brilliant. Plus you do have the ability to download the music too which appears to be updated on a regular basis.

Downsides....I wish the PS3 could play CD+G files, had childrens nursery rhymes and even some Russian music too.

Zelda Wii U

This is likely to the THE reason for me to consider purchasing a Wii U. And no other.

Id like to less explosions and more discovery, but Im certain that will come.

Uncharted 1 Finished, welcome Uncharted 2

It was said to me many years ago when I first owned a SNES console, and I began buying second hand games (those were they days of cardboard boxes meaning that they regularly were fragile and fell apart without TLC), that "if you live in the past, you can live like a King." Meaning buying the latest console and games was expensive. Better buy a machine in its twilight years (PS3 purchased 2013) and pick up every game worthwhile and average for such a steal. E.g. 2 good games for £ 20, or 5 for £ 20. I recently picked up the entire Uncharted series for PS3 for £ 20 and have completed the first game and about to commence the 2nd in the series. Because I know they went on to develop The Last of Us (and have played a little bit of it already about 10 hours worth) I did notice a lot of similarities in the hide and seek style of gameplay.

Ever since the days of the original Playstation, I've been a fan of both Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games and playing Uncharted felt as good as it gets.

I noticed the graphical enhancement of the 2nd game over the 1st already.