GAME FREAKZ

Never heard of the name Benoit Sokal ? Aww…….come on…don’t tell me you haven’t played Syberia I and Syberia II. No?? Haven’t ?!

And Benoit Sokal, is the Belgian guy that is behind this two titles. After joining Microids and created Syberia I and II, he opens up his own company called White Birds Production and made the game Paradise with Ubisoft as its publisher.

I really love it when i play an adventure game, and they give me rewards for my eyes to take pleasure in.

I feel like : *with 5 years old voice* after the ‘hard work’ on finishing that part, i get to see an animation clip that looks gooooooood! Yey! My eyes and me feels good too!We are happy!

ahahahahaahahhahah…lol

So that also makes me, really annoyed when i finished a game, and the ending is : nothing special, no cool animation, nothing!

This Paradise game has a little happening that irritates me. That is …when i got to be the Leopard at night. The movement is not good to control and is uncomfortable. The mission is unclear. But luckily they give us ‘press the escape key to skip’ feature.

And what i also found out in this game, is that they like to put things on areas where is a little hidden or small in the corner or up in the tree…well…it is not funny you know…making people go round and around looking for it!

But overall, this game is worth to buy. If you love good graphics, don’t miss this one.

I have heard of the TV series E.R, but i don’t remember watching it. Who cares anyway, this game is cool. I got to play doctor.

E.R screenshot from IGN

Cure sick people, get busy, and also the challenges are fun. Because it keeps me busy and making me play for hours. The busier i am the more fun i get from simulation games. It makes my brain keep on working and makes me forget about stress or problems or whatever in real life.

This is what i call entertainment. What is an entertainment if it makes me even more stressful than before? I thought the word entertain..is to relieve people and make them have fun!

There are two types of people from what i experienced when it come to entertainment in games. First, is the ‘nothing else to do’ people and second, is the ‘real busy-normal everyday-life-worker’ type.

Since i experienced both sides, i will say what i think and feel about this. When i got to be at home, unemployed and not in universities or taking lesson or whatsoever, i got to sleep at 6 am playing games all night long, watching 3 dvd’s a day or hanging around and get myself half asleep in a game store surrounded by game dvd’s and cd’s. Or browse new hardwares at an electronic store until it closes up.

So i got all the time in the world. And i do not use my brain for something else except for playing games. At that time, i wanted a more challenging puzzles and games to play with.
To stimulate my brain and not leaving it ‘unused’. I want long adventure games. The longer the better.

But as i get busy, i got to wake up at 7 30 am and get off from the office at 6 30 pm and got home at 7 pm and have dinner and so on, i wanted some games that can relieve me from my work-stress and the tired feeling i got.

I want to smile and laugh and be happy. Or get busy with simulation games which can make me forgot. Or get excited from some adventure game. Or even flight simulation-shooting games.

Not playing horror games, absolutely no Hitman on weekdays, No Prince of Persia.

E.R screenshot from IGN

ER is good to play. I do not regret buying this game. Even after i finished the game, i am just not satisfied with it. So i play it all over again and it still feels good.

It is something like the Sims where the doctor character’s got a hunger bar, hygienic bar, etc, i got to get my doctor character to eat in the cafeteria and sleep and go to the gym, also socialize with other doctors, but the thing is, if only they make it more similar to the Sims, where people really talk and have relationship. That will be cool. Since then i can have scandals and 5 boyfriends to fight each other with. But in this game, nah.., the social life is not so realistic. Its just to add up to the game.

By the way, I am really looking forward to see ER II, with a more enhanced features and details. And a close up camera version and better graphic!

I loveeeeee to play doctor..(heh heh heh*evil laugh)

Well, If i am a 13 years old and below, or perhaps an adult who desperately want to have a dog and unable to have one in real life, i might continue to play this game.

But for me, unfortunately i own a real dog. So in my eyes this game has lots of flaws. Since i know what real puppies can do. And i cannot find it in this simulation-puppy, thus making me not satisfied with this game. And after playing it for 1 hour.., i get bored.

Also, if this game is a little more enhanced, with more features and more interesting competition, other dog to interact or fight with, in other words, closing in to realistic puppy, it will be interesting for adult gamers to play.

Or even add some Monster Rancher (Playstation) style in it, where we get to fight our dog with other dog in competition.

Or at least give some description on the items like in Sims II and the reason why we need this item or the differences between one water bottle to the other. Not just merely in shape and design and color!

Oblivion-screenshot

And what i like the most from this RPG is the freedom to choose that they give inside the game. Even when there is the main story in it, but i basically can be and can do whatever i feel like doing!

I remember the game Ultima 7 when i was a kid. Where i can kill all the villagers and steal all the items if i wanted to. And OBLIVION is pretty much the same.

Oblivion-screenshot

And besides that, the NPC in OBLIVION has an improved AI in it. They talk to each other, they sleep, they eat, and they carry items for me to steal. I love to steal from the NPC. I even steal it from under their nose. Is not that they are stupid. But my character’s sneak skill has reached its maximum level (master).

However, there is one thing i do not like about Oblivion. That is when i have to go inside the oblivion gate and close it everytime i want to finish the main quest. I HATE IT! It is so bloody inside and i mean it. It is gruesome and full of blood everywhere. Dead bodies hanging around. Ugly monsters, and evil like things inside. It gives me an uneasy feeling.

Oblivion-screenshot

I guess i am not into shooting zombie or killing evil-ugly-looking monster or ghost and its colleagues. That is why i don’t play silent hill, or resident evil. I am really sick with resident evil and cannot understand why people make such a game. And what i don’t understand even more is why people buy that game ! A Korean guy in our dorm in Singapore when i was still in high school got nightmares every night from playing that game everyday in 1 month. Until he get freaked out by himself and stopped playing that game.

Well, i can kill normal monsters and bandits or whatever in the game, but i don’t know why, being inside the oblivion gate
just give me the creeps.

Oblivion-screenshot

But overall I can never describe better how good and a great success OBLIVION is. I AM A GREAT FAN OF THE ELDER SCROLLS GAME! YEA BABY! GIVE ME SOME MORE OF THAT!

Mentioning that, i just remember that there is an expansion of OBLIVION : SHIVERING ISLES.

Note on self : I will buy that expansion no matter what. It is worth it!

I really recommend this game for -point and click adventure- lovers. In case you missed this game.

It is about strange deaths that has been happening in the Samuel Gordon family. But it is not that gruesome horror ..and i mean.. really-really horror adventure game. This game however, can make me stick my butt on the chair in front of my computer for more than 6 hours.

The graphic is good. The music is nice. Wide locations to roam around. And also some characters to talk with. In other words…you dont get bored easily!

the black mirror-screenshot

The ending is really shocking…i am not going to tell who the killer is…i might ruin the fun…heh heh heh (evil laugh)

I say, even years after its first released, up until now that is 4 years later, this game is still suitable to play.

the black mirror-puzzle

Okay, when i think about this, i get really embarrassed. Five months before i was called in to Ubisoft for an interview(February2006), i send out my CV to Ubisoft applying for a junior game designer position.

Then..after i waited for 2 months with no reply, i went and enrolled myself into Jiao Tong University majoring in 3D animation(live must go on).

So i went to Ubisoft Shanghai and met Erick. He gave me his name card which i crushed and rolled under the table out of nervousness and he actually asking it back because he wanted to write his personal website on it! So i give it back to him….. the name card…which looked like a crumpled piece of paper…

And i was so nervous and tired. The interview feels like a hell torment and it takes so long…i started speaking German to Erick…when he asked about the adventure games title that i liked..I said…Geheimnise der druiden ?

And what is more stupid..is when he said :Tell me about this game that you wanted to create if you have the chance. (It is written on my e-test) And i started babbling about something..which i dont even know what the heck i was talking about!

Well…after that, he asked three other junior game designer to come and talk to me in the interview. They came in one by one. And i get even more frustrated…I realized that day i wrecked the whole interview.. especially its because i decided to stick with my studies..so i asked them to give me a part time job or a part time internship…But anyway, i did not get that job.

That was the only time i met Erick. Until recently when he came in to McGee’s office as a guest. But i did not say hello or anything. I dont think he even remember me.

Erick was a game designer manager in Ubisoft Shanghai and currently he is working in Totally Games as a senior game designer/writer.

I cant really write a lot of things about Erick since i do not know him at all. I only met him in that ‘whatever’ interview. But my impression on him in that interview is that he got this friendly and warm aura of a good professor in the university. He reminds me of one of my high school art teacher who is really warm and teaches us patiently and friendly..and i skipped that class a lot boozing off playing in  Far East Plaza (Singapore)..i regret that now.. But nevermind..there is nothing to late to learn if you have the willpower and self-disciplined.

Which makes people have to try everything like an idiot, thus not using the brain cell properly since it has no logic whatsoever in it. And scientifically missed the ‘flow’ in the brain cell that makes people feels good.

But this game, Runaway II, is not even close to that! They give a logical way out to solve problems in the game.

And i do honestly applaud for this game, because unlike any other adventure game that makes me stressed out, this one makes me relaxed because it is fun to play this game!

The game itself has a lot of humor in it. It is real fun, even when you are a bit stuck and try to click certain items from the inventory on odd places or items, Brian will give out comments that is really funny.

What i think as a disadvantage to this game is that the other character speaks too much. And without any expression nor Brian moving …it is quite boring.. I think it would be better if they make certain close up expression if they want to use that long of a speech.

scenes from Runaway II

But overall, HECK! I love this game. It helps me relieve my tiredness and stress. I enjoyed this game so much, that i play it slowly…like munching down a delicious chocolate.. slowly in my mouth ..before it goes into my throat.

I wish that more adventure game designers would consider to make a game that actually helps people to have fun, not to make them even more stressed out because of the unlogical and too complex problems and riddles in it.

I mean, i am no saint. How the hell can i read what they want me to do in the game ? But if the hints are CLEAR, and it is between the boundary of logical thinking to solve the problem, then i guess everybody can find a way out.

Certain avid and hard core gamers can find their way out on situations in adventure games since they have experiences in it. I can find an unlogical solution to some problems in adventure games just because i have played a similar or series of that game.

But i must say in Agatha Christie II, the game is a little too short and too easy since there is Poirot that helped out with hints on the investigation. Which makes the challenge less fun.

But i was quite shocked to see the difference in graphic quality from Agatha 1 to II, and said to myself : Wow..they must have a bigger budget now…somebody is injecting their money on this project. I guess Agatha 1 did make some notes and success.

And the adventure company logo pops up when the game started. Where it did not in Agatha 1. I guess, now, almost in every adventure game, adventure company will take their fingers on it and have their logo pops up.

And the story in this game is quite good..of course..since it is Agatha Christie! I just got surprised when i found out who the mastermind is. Because that is the least person i would have suspected in the game!