Gaming Zone

Developer:

BioWare

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Release Date:

2007

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Systems:

Xbox 360, Windows, PlayStation 3

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Today on Super Adventures I'm finally taking a look at a Mass Effect game! I started the month with a sci-fi two parter and now I'm ending it with one too! Next month: I dunno... zombies.

The Mass Effect series is basically what happened when the developers of Baldur's Gate and Knights of the Old Republic decided they could really do with some of that Gears of War and Halo money. They'd already switched to full 3D visuals and moved the camera behind the characters for KotOR, and this took another step by swapping out the tactical combat for cover shooting, to appeal to more of the console owning mainstream. In fact the game was an Xbox 360 exclusive for 7 months before BioWare's original PC fanbase finally got to have a go of it. PlayStation 3 owners on the other hand were left waiting so long that they were able to buy both Mass Effect 2 and 3 first! Which is just dumb.

I've actually had all three in my library for years and I've played all of them once before, but I've been putting off writing about them because it either didn't seem the right time to show off another modern AAA shooter, or I didn't have time to do it properly. If I start playing one I'll have to finish playing all of them, and that's a whole lot of space adventure to document. But it's BioWare's 20th anniversary this year, so to celebrate I'm going to put the effort in!

THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST FEW HOURS OF MASS EFFECT (AT LEAST). IN FACT I MAY END UP ACCIDENTALLY SAYING MORE THAN I SHOULD ABOUT THE SEQUELS TOO, SO... STOP NOW IF THAT'S AN ISSUE.

(Click the screenshots to open them up big.)
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Developer:

AIM

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Release Date:

1993

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Systems:

PC Engine CD

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Today on Super Adventures I'm taking a quick look at Fausset� Amour, which is almost certainly some kind of platformer. Probably.

One of the special talents I possess that sets me apart from the average game writer is my ability to consistently spell 'TurboGrafx' right without looking it up, but it's turning out to be a pretty useless skill seeing as everything I play for the system lately turns out to be exclusive to the Japanese PC Engine version of the machine. Like this for instance.

The title 'Fausset� Amour' on the other hand, I've been having to double check every time. I keep putting in too many 't's or not enough 's's or throwing in an 'r' and changing it to 'armour'. Google Translate tells me that it's French and is pretty close to meaning 'false love'. Which is a bit of a warning sign perhaps, but it's a console game so I'm sure it'll be perfectly wholesome and safe for the whole family to enjoy! Probably.
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Developer:

Shiny

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Release Date:

2000

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Systems:

Windows

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Today on Super Adventures I'm playing... a PlayStation demo disc I guess. I mean check out the menu theme I'm hearing right now: Youtube link. A Fear Factory soundtrack's not entirely what was I expecting from a game with a cherub on the cover by the makers of Earthworm Jim.

I've actually had a few requests for Messiah, all of them coming after I wrote about Dark Messiah: Might and Magic a few weeks back. I figured that eventually someone might have suggested the Japanese survival horror Dark Messiah (AKA. Hellnight) instead, but nope everyone wants to see the one with the baby angel in it. So a creepy baby angel's what you'll get.

(Click the gameplay screenshots to view them at their original resolution.)
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Developer:

Sega

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Release Date:

1991

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Systems:

Arcade

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Today on Super Adventures I'm hoping that D.D. Crew doesn't turn out to be another game about shooting guns on a spaceship, or else I'm going to have to rename the site to 'Sci-Fi Adventures in Gaming'. Which I don't want to do, because... uh... hmm...

Oh right, I bought a bundle of fantasy RPGs a while back that I still need to get to. Can't change the title until I've played all of them, and they're all 18,000 hours long each so you're safe for a while.

I'm not entire sure what D.D. Crew is about yet, it's another name I picked from the request list, but it's an arcade game from the early 90s and that pretty dramatically narrows down what genre it's likely to be. It's not going to be a 18,000 hour long fantasy RPG for instance. Could it be Sega's attempt at an all-female fighting game perhaps? Wouldn't shock me, but arcade titles can be devious and misleading, so I wouldn't bet on it either.
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Stealth development might not be very "open-sourceish", but it sometimes makes for some nice surprises in our project showcase forum.

This time it was the completely new open-source game Limit Load, self described as:

A cockpit flight game that is more of an arcade than a sim. The game is built on the Panda3D game engine. It is similar to the ancient games like the classic Wings or the very good Strike Commander. The story and the atmosphere are important elements of the game, so a lot of focus is placed on that too.

Here is some in-game action and it seems quite polished already for such a new game:


Licensing of assets is still a bit of a grey area it seems, but they are fully aware of it:

The game code is licensed under GPL 3, and custom-made game assets under CC-by-SA 4.0. Some of the assets were taken from "free" (as in "not sure in which way") sources on the Internet, so their licensing situation is unclear. Eventually these should be cleared for use or replaced.

So where is my VR kit? :D

Developer:

The Collective

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Release Date:

2000

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Systems:

Windows, Mac

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Today on Super Adventures... it's another licensed sci-fi game! Apparently they come in pairs this year. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - The Fallen comes from the Star Trek gamesplosion of 2000, when a ridiculous amount of Trek games all appeared at once, and some were even good! The 'Deep Space Nine' spin-off itself had actually ended back in '99, but they boldly went forward and gave the fans a couple more games anyway.

You might think your game backlog is bad, but this has been sitting on my shelf unplayed for like 15 years now. Mostly because I could never get the damn thing to run properly. It always came out running too fast, or way too dark, or with unfiltered textures and giant space pixels in place of stars.

This time though I'm using the dgVoodoo 2 Glide wrapper to trick the game into thinking I have a 3dfx card, and it's actually working pretty great... except for the low resolution and 16-bit colour depth. So be aware that the game can theoretically look better than it does in the upcoming screenshots.

Warning: this will likely contain spoilers for the 'Deep Space Nine' TV series. Like the fact that it has one episode entirely about one of the main cast having a sex change to stand in for his mother, and it's still a better series than 'Voyager'.

(Click an image to see the original screenshot, if you're in the mood for disappointment. They ain't HD by a long shot.)
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We were kindly made aware by the main developer of the 2D RTS Wyrmsun that he is currently looking for support to get this game on the Steam platform (link includes a game-play video).

Here is a description of the game we got from him:

In Wyrmsun, humans, elves and dwarves all seek to carve a place for themselves on their different homeworlds, with humans living on Earth, dwarves dwelling on Nidavellir, and elves inhabiting Alfheim. In the game's missions, each world follows separate storylines, but the various civilizations can be mixed and matched in custom games.

Wyrmsun features:

• Retro-style graphics
• 2 playable civilizations, and a number of non-playable ones
• 18 quests to play, earning technology points which can be used to obtain new units, buildings and technologies
• 38 units, 30 buildings and 14 technologies
• Units that can earn experience, being able to upgrade to new unit types or acquire new abilities upon level-up
• Persistent heroes, who carry over their level and abilities throughout scenarios
• Personal names and traits for units
• Cave, Conifer Forest, Dungeon, Fairlimbed Forest and Swamp tilesets
• 33 maps of real and fictional locations to choose from, as well as random maps
• Living environment, with fauna reproduction and predation
• Very moddable game, with mod-loading capability built in
• Grand strategy mode, where production is resolved on the strategic (world map) level, while battles are resolved on the tactical level
• In-game encyclopedia, allowing players to learn more about the units, buildings and other elements of the game, as well as their historical and mythological sources of inspiration.

For those more inclined to help out with the code, there are two code repositories: one for the game and one for the modified Stratagus engine.

P.S.: Yes FOSS games can be on Steam as long as they don't integrate with closed source steam integration libraries; And it can be a great way to attract more users to your game and maybe even collect some donations or sell add-ons (preferably in a "release freely when sufficient funds are gathered" style). See this game for an successful example.

Developer:

Raven

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Release Date:

2002

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Systems:

Windows, Mac, Xbox, GameCube (but not PS2)

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Today on Super Adventures I'm taking a look at Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, the third in the Jedi Knight series. Poor Dark Forces: it was the one that started the games off in the first place but Jedi Knight was the name that stuck. Because it has 'Jedi' in it and every Star Wars fan wants to be a telekinetic space samurai.

I've played this before, but it's been so long now that all I remember about it is that the lightsaber combat is a step up from the last game and it probably does the shooting better. I mean you'd expect it have decent gunplay considering LucasArts passed the series on to FPS veterans Raven Software for this one, who were coming off Soldier of Fortune and Star Trek: Voyager - Elite Force at the time. It seemed like Raven were getting around to all the big space sci-fi franchises in turn and giving them each a shooter, but instead they switched to making Marvel action RPGs weirdly, and now they make Call of Duty DLC.

The game has a 'mods' option right in the menu, which is cool, but I won't be touching any of them. I want the pure, unedited, non-Special Edition Jedi Outcast experience. Well, the single player experience anyway, I won't be showing multiplayer, and I won't be turning it off until I get to a proper Jedi duel.

Warning: This may contain spoilers for the earlier Jedi Knight games, including the fact that the hero becomes a Jedi Knight.

(Click images to expand them into bigger images.)
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