Of Fantasia And The Black Cauldron: Tsioque

I’ve mentioned Fantasia and The Black Cauldron above because there’s something about the combination of dark fantasy and slapstick animation in Tsioque that brought them both to mind. Admittedly, I haven’t seen The Black Cauldron for years and looking at a few screengrabs has convinced me that it might not be quite the film I thought it was, but I’m sticking to my guns here. There’s something of Bluth in Tsioque as well.

Whatever the merits of my references, Tsioque [official site] looks like a delicious slice of fantasy, starring a young girl in a dark castle. You can play a demo right now or read on for more information.

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Bright Lights, Big Cities: Skylines – After Dark

Somehow I ended up thinking Cities: Skylines – After Dark [official site] would be a scuzzy, sleazy, neon affair. I was expecting a rain-soaked trailer with buzzing lights advertising GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS or CHAPS CHAPS CHAPS or something and soundtracked by Electric 6. Maybe Devil Nights off Senor Smoke.

It isn’t. There are streetlights and windowlit office blocks and the soundtrack is perky and plinky plonky as it showcases the expansion’s new nightspots:

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The RPG Scrollbars: Legends Of Valour

Who said epic action and high adventure has to be part of an adventurer’s life? (Checks) Oh, right. Pretty much everyone at least expects it. Still, back in 1992, US Gold and Synthetic Dimensions decided to try something a little different. Specifically, spelling ‘Valour’ correctly. (The sequel might have done the same for ‘Honour’, but we never got to find out.) Also, something to do with life simulation. It’s a little remembered game these days, but one that’s still having an impact on some of the biggest modern RPGs around. Ever heard of a series called The Elder Scrolls?

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Deus Ex: Mankind Divided Release Date Held To Ransom

One Deus Ex: Human Revolution mission centred around an old friend from the Deus Ex universe, Tracer Tong, was locked off in pre-order DLC (and later sold seperately). It was a bit of a gross move. Apparently not learning from their mistakes – a pretty Deus Ex-y theme, to be fair – publishers Square Enix have announced all the pre-order guff for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided [official site].

It’s a big mess, of course, and includes the unpleasant step of saying they’ll release the game four days early if enough people pre-order. How about we not pre-order games any more and Squeenix simply release it when it’s ready, eh?

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Mad Max Roars Out, Dragging Movies To Steam Too

Mad Max [official site], the open-world apocalypse ‘em up from Just Cause devs Avalanche Studios has arrived on Steam, and so has Mad Max, the post-apocalyptic watch ‘em up series from Babe director George Miller.

Seeing the four Mad Max films on Steam is quite a surprise, given that Valve’s moving picture offerings so far have mostly been small indie films and documentaries about video games. It helps that Warner Bros. distributed the movies as well as publishing the game, but still, coo, Fury Road! More than ever, I wish Steam’s films were games.

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Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain – Faults And Fixes

I woke up this morning in a bright new world, a world in which what may be Hideo Kojima’s final Metal Gear game [official site] is available on PC. It still seems like an impossible dream, that a series that has only sporadically stealthed its way onto our machines should be here day one, the same time as the console launch, so I was expecting something to go wrong. Performance issues due to the port from console to PC? A sudden stepback in visual quality as compared to ‘prologue’ mission Ground Zeroes?

Remarkably, The Phantom Pain hasn’t gotten its cape into a tangle and seems to be running smoothly while looking devilishly handsome. There are some caveats and snags though, as always.

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Wot I Think: STASIS

Stasis [official site] is a traditional point and click adventure game with a sci-fi horror theme. Successfully Kickstarted by tiny South African studio The Brotherhood in 2013, it was released yesterday. Join me for some space-screaming.

Perhaps the main reason adventure games and I broke up is that I found them too arbitrary to take seriously. The puzzles were so often at odds with the setting or theme, necessitating a suspension of disbelief (either that there really only are three usable objects in this room, or that the protagonist is simply too stupid to try anything else) that I was increasingly unwilling to provide in order to commune with some designer’s lateral thinking, or some writer’s gags. Even Grim Fandango, the last adventure game I loved, was guilty of this: that wonderful sense of journey regularly disrupted by an inherent illogic. I don’t enjoy puzzling for puzzling’s sake – but when it’s a puzzle which propels a game a game onwards, that’s a different matter entirely. STASIS is all about momentum rather than stop-start headscratching. The majority of its puzzles act as natural stepping stones along its journey into body-horror darkness, not obstacles. It flows.

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