Tag Archives: PC games

Class of ’09: of cynicism and sociopathy

I’ve been a little leery of western-developed visual novels for a while now. I know that there are some genuinely good ones out there — but there are also a lot that play up the obnoxiously ironic, self-referential angle to such a degree that they’re hard to take seriously.

I’m not sure what made me think that Class of ’09, which describes itself as “the anti-visual novel” would be any different, but nonetheless something attracted me to it and made me think it might actually be worth a look. The fact it was £3 on sale at GOG.com helped, too, I must admit — even if it turned out to be complete horseshit, I would have spent less than the price of a cup of coffee on it.

Thankfully, it did not turn out to be complete horseshit. Nor, I’d argue, did it turn out to really be that which it described itself as. But it did turn out to be an enjoyable, worthwhile experience that I’m glad I spent four hours playing through. So let’s take a closer look at exactly why.

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Two Point Campus and the management sim as imaginative play

I am, as I have spoken about numerous times previously, not good at strategy games with a competitive component. But I have always enjoyed a distinct offshoot of the strategic genre: the management sim, in which you tend to mostly be competing against “yourself”.

Ever since I first played SimCity on Super NES — a game that I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy when I first got it for Christmas as a kid, but which I ended up loving — I’ve found great value from games where you get to “play God” to varying degrees, having the opportunity to express your creativity within the constraints of a set of game mechanics.

And the latest of these I’ve found myself having fun with is Sega’s Two Point Campus, the follow-up to their successful riff on Bullfrog’s Theme Hospital, Two Point Hospital.

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Gaming on a Schedule, Day 2: Adding some structure to Microsoft Flight Simulator

I really enjoy simulations, which is why I wanted to set aside a day in my schedule to take the time to enjoy them. But I’ve come to something of a conclusion in more recent years: I’m not very good at knowing what to do with a completely free-form sandbox.

I’m not sure I ever was — though I did play a lot of SimCity and SimCity 2000 back in the day, and I played both of those in the sandbox mode rather than diving into the Scenarios — but I feel like this part of my brain has started to have real trouble in more recent years.

To whit, I was super-excited for the (now not particularly) new version of Microsoft Flight Simulator that came out in 2020, but after picking it up, I found that I haven’t actually spent that much time with it in total. Relatively speaking, I mean; I’ve still put 40+ hours into it to date, but compared to dedicated propellerheads that’s nothing.

Continue reading Gaming on a Schedule, Day 2: Adding some structure to Microsoft Flight Simulator

Retro Select: Nox

Westwood Studios put out some great games in their prime, including their most well-known titles such as Command & Conquer and the Eye of the Beholder series — but also some lesser-known little gems too.

Nox definitely falls into the latter category. Sadly written off as something of a Diablo II clone on its original release, it’s actually a rather distinct sort of experience featuring three separate, self-contained narratives, a great sense of structure and pacing and an excellent control scheme. Well worth your time if you like your action RPGs!

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

Retro Select: Tyrian 2000

The all-time classic shoot ’em ups of days gone by can typically be found in the arcades and on home consoles — devices with specialist hardware than can handle speedy scrolling and flinging masses of sprites around the screen at once.

But don’t for one second think that there aren’t great shoot ’em ups designed for classic home computers, too. Because there are some fabulous ones out there — and Tyrian is one of the very best, particularly if you crave something with a little more depth and long-term appeal than a standard arcade-style affair. Best of all, it’s free these days, too.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

Retro Select: Dungeon Hack

Enjoy D&D games but hate that they have to end eventually — and if you want to play again you end up playing the same old story over and over?

Enter Dungeon Hack, the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition take on the roguelike genre, making use of Westwood’s Eye of the Beholder engine. That’s quite a pedigree, I’m sure you’ll agree — and it’s a great game, too, particularly if you enjoy hack-and-slash treasure huntin’ dungeon crawlin’.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

Retro Select: Lands of Lore – The Throne of Chaos

VIRGIN INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS… THE WESTWOOD STUDIOS PRODUCTION OF… LANDS OF LORE, THE THRONE OF CHAOS.

Lands of Lore: The Throne of Chaos from Virgin Interactive Entertainment and Westwood Studios (natch) is the only game that I never, ever, ever skip over the credit scenes for. I mean, come on, Patrick Stewart bellowing the name of the publisher and the developer with admirable sincerity? You don’t see that every day. Oh, also it’s a damn fine game, too, as evidenced by the fact I ended up playing this for nearly two hours without realising.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

Retro Select: Quake

Quake is here! Again. Only this time around, it’s (re)releasing in a context where it actually feels fresh and interesting, rather than a technologically superior version of things we’ve seen before.

It’s fascinating quite how well Quake holds up today, particularly when compared to today’s takes on first-person shooters. Night Dive Studios’ new remaster of the game is incredibly respectful to the original while adding a bunch of conveniences that modern players would demand — and there’s a whole lot of game in there to enjoy, too.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

short;Play: Teleglitch

As wonderful as true teleportation technology would be, I think we’ve probably had enough cautionary sci-fi tales by now to make anyone very wary of actually pursuing research in this field.

One that I’m rather fond of is Teleglitch, a charmingly lo-fi roguelike-inspired action game that takes a number of cues from classic first-person shooters and survival horror games. In it, you play a scientist at a military research installation with rather questionable ethics where, unsurprisingly, work on both teleportation and genetic engineering has gone horribly wrong.

Enjoy my gameplay in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

short;Play: The Incredible Machine

PC gaming today is, in a lot of cases, “console gaming but prettier and smoother”. There are exceptions, of course, but over the years I feel like we’ve lost a little something.

Back in the MS-DOS era, “PC games” felt a lot more distinct from “console games”. And a fantastic example of this is Dynamix’s The Incredible Machine: a delightful, subtly educational, Heath Robinson/Rube Goldberg-inspired puzzle game that challenged you to accomplish simple tasks in the most convoluted manner possible.

Join me in rediscovering this old classic in the video below — and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!