Video games are a medium based around control. Take away a player's ability to control something and it is no longer a game and there is no longer a player. Just a viewer.

When you take into consideration games that allow the player to control some form of avatar, whether it be a fighter, driver, football player, etc. there are really only two forms of control: direct control and point and click. In direct control, the player has instant control over the avatar and if no input is being given then the players avatar is static. This is the more common control method and would include such games as: God of War, Bioshock, Burnout, and Madden. The other form, point and click, the player rather than having direct control over an avatar they are pointing and telling the avatars or characters what to do. Some examples would include: Diablo (and clones), LucasArts adventures, and most RTS games. A major difference with point and click is the avatar or character will often have a personality and AI of its own that takes some of the control away from the player. In Diablo and many of its clones the player's avatar will attack enemies automatically that are near them even without the player's input. In a LucasArts adventure game a player will click on an item of interest and then the main character will find its way to that item and interact on its own as the player watches.

I don't like point and click based games. I just can't get into them...



...and I wish I could for PIGEON SAKES!

I wish I could because I am drawn to games that have great characters, an interesting setting, a strong story and that bring you into the world that the designers have created. But when I'm pointing and clicking I can't get drawn into that world. I feel like I'm a viewer from the outside giving advice to characters who are not me. In games like Half-Life 2, Indigo Prophecy, and Shenmue, where I have direct control, I am those characters. I am killing combine with Alyx Vance, I am cleaning up after just murdering someone in the diner's bathroom, and I am trying to find the man who murdered my father and possibly kick his ass someday (come on Shenmue 3). But then there is Sam and Max, Monkey Island, and Syberia. Their settings and environments are beautiful, the characters and dialogue are engaging, the story is interesting, and I can't stand playing them. The thing is I really believe that if these games had a form of direct control I would love them.



In the old days of PC adventure gaming I loved the Sierra adventure games and not the LucasArts point and click games and the difference was only how the game controlled. Walking around as Leisure Suit Larry or the main character from King's Quest was much more interesting to me than clicking and telling Guybrush what to interact with next. The thing is LucasArts had infinitely better writing and artwork than the Sierra games. Leisure Suit Larry was a blob of pixels and Sam and Max where animation quality hand drawn characters. But the ability to walk Larry wherever I wanted to go and to type anything I wanted into that little text input at the bottom of the screen made it for me. Granted the text input wasn't the greatest way of control either but it at least gave you the feeling of being able to do anything you wanted. It definitely gave my younger self some enjoyment while typing in every dirty word and action I could think of into it.



The main thing is I just don't see the advantage to point and click control as far as adventure games are concerned (strategy games and Diablo clones are more understandable although I don't play either very often). Grim Fandango took the basic LucasArts adventure game template but gave the player direct control over Manny and suddenly I'm given one of my favorite games of all time. Why did we need all these different buttons for looking, talking, grabbing, etc. when Grim Fandango is able to do it all with just an interact button. Often times in point and click games you miss something because you had the wrong interaction button selected, and once you realize that you spend a bunch of wasted time trying out each button over every object just to make sure you didn't miss something in the room. It's not fun, at least for me and it shouldn't be fun for you either.

"Give me direct control or give me death!"
-Patrick Henry, 1775

I also can't stand Myst and all those "point and click first person pre-rendered static screen adventure puzzle" games that were popular for awhile.



Lately, I've been getting more interested in what TellTale is doing with their episodic adventure games but the whole point and click control scheme has put me off. I'd love to hear from some of you in the comments of how their control scheme works and if it's any improvement over the old style of games.

The video game market today is flooded with first person shooters that all blend together into one indiscernible mass of browns, grays, world wars, and space marines. I’ve always had a love for the first person perspective because of its ability to completely draw the player into the game environment. You’re not controlling the main character from a distance you are the main character and seeing everything from his eyes. Unfortunately, games that use the first person perspective in an amazing way are few and far between. Bioshock, Fallout 3, and Half-Life 2 are good examples of first-person done right. When I saw screens and videos from the upcoming Zeno Clash game it really stood out to me. Here was a first person game with brightly colored visuals and an amazing surreal art direction. I couldn’t wait to play it.



The game revolves around you playing the role of Ghat who has turned against his Father-Mother (more on that later) and been kicked out of his home city. The Father-Mother is a hermaphroditic character who is the mother and father of tons of children in Ghat’s hometown. All of these children are Ghat’s brothers and sisters and you will be fighting them throughout the game as Father-Mother has put a price on your head. Early on you meet Daedra, a female character that accompanies you throughout the game. The game tries to create an emotional connection between Daedra and Ghat but it never quite grabbed me personally. The below average voice acting being one of the main reasons the dialogue between the two characters never really resonated. Being set in such a strange alternate universe the developers could have created their own unique language with English subtitles and the poor dialogue delivery would not have been as noticeable.



The game is divided into around twenty or more stages where you will do a little exploring but mostly hand-to-hand fighting. When you reach a combat area the screen will freeze and display a versus title screen and tell you who you will be fighting. The combat usually takes place in enclosed areas of various sizes that contain various weapons, bombs, and health restoring fruits. You could almost think of it as a first person fighting game, although usually you are fighting two to three people at once.

The fighting is really well done and reminded me of Condemned 2 in many ways. You lock on to enemies with the “E” key and then punch with the mouse buttons. The right button delivers a weak but faster punch and the left button is a stronger but slower punch. You can block and dodge by using the space bar and direction buttons. In addition to this there are various combinations that add even more to your repertoire. It all works really well and it’s always satisfying laying the final uppercut blow on an enemy. Occasionally, the lock on system got a little frustrating when a lot of enemies were around you, but 90% of the time I didn’t have a problem.



There are guns in the game but I rarely used them as they never felt very powerful and took too long to reload. I’d fire a few shots off, hit reload, and then get punched and drop the gun. A few boss fights and levels require you to use a gun and it works fine in those situations but I usually stuck with the hand to hand combat.



The art direction of the game is strictly amazing and was the main reason I couldn’t put the game down from beginning to end. I couldn’t wait to finish each level and see what the next one would be like. The surreal architecture and landscapes are extremely beautiful. If Salvador Dali designed a video game it would probably look similar to this. The levels all have a lot of variation between them and you’re never bored from seeing too much of the same thing. You go through the main city, deserts, forests, sea shores, and each one is as good as the last. And if you think the environments are amazing the character models are even better. Humans mixed with birds, pigs mixed with humans, strange masks and clothing, the beautiful Daedra, the hermaphroditic Father-Mother, every character is great. One of my favorite characters was a character who always walked in a completely straight line “because that’s what he wanted to do”, and there’s many more strange characters you meet.



I really can’t recommend this game enough. For $20 you get a game that is completely unique and unlike anything you’ve ever played. I would gladly pay $60 for this over many of the games being released today. The game took me maybe 5-6 hours to complete on Normal difficulty. There are a couple other difficulties as well as a challenge mode (with leader boards) that takes you through a lot of different combat situations, so you definitely get your $20 worth of gaming. Zeno Clash 2, Ace Team?

The first time I heard about Illbleed was in one of the last issues of the Official Dreamcast Magazine. The story really interested me because of my interest in survival horror at the time and the game looked to be different than a typical Resident Evil clone. I eventually bought the game soon after its release at a local EB Games. This was at a point in time when the Dreamcast section had shrunk to a couple of shelves and was hidden away in the corner, sad stuff. I can still remember the day when I walked into the store and the Dreamcast games were completely gone. 

Illbleed soon became one of the most memorable games to come out for the Sega Dreamcast for me. I beat it several times, playing with different characters and getting the different endings. The game does a great job of spoofing cheesy B horror movies and accomplishes being both clever and hilarious while also scary at times. The story centers on you playing Eriko Christy who must go through a horror theme park and rescue your friends who have disappeared. Each level is a different attraction based on a made up horror movie. The levels are diverse and clever and some examples are the Home Run of Death, where a father goes crazy after his baseball prodigy son dies and kills people with a blowtorch, and an amazing parody of Toy Story where you play a Woody-like character and go to Hell and back.



The game is consistently clever with its environments and levels and is a very refreshing take on the horror genre. The game is just full of little details that bring smiles to your face and give you that “I’ve got to show this to someone!” feeling. One of my favorite parts is when you’re going through a level totally involved in the setting and story and suddenly you see some theme park employees working on part of the attraction that is broken. Another is a boss that is a giant spoof of Sonic the Hedgehog and you have to destroy rings that come out of him until he doesn’t have any left. The game never takes itself too seriously and you can tell the developers had fun creating the game.

Now, the gameplay itself wasn’t that great to begin with and has aged even worse. While playing you have different senses that start going off when you’re near an enemy, an item, or a jump scene. Using a device called the Horror Monitor you use an Adrenaline Meter to mark off different objects around you so that when you go near the jump scene or enemy you don’t get scared. If you don’t mark the area the jump scene will raise your heartbeat and/or hurt you. If you lose too much health or your heartbeat gets too fast you die. It’s different than most games but also confusing and it wasn’t until my second play through that I really came to turns of it.



Also, when you encounter an enemy go into a battle scene in a tiny enclosed square and must either kill the enemies or sometimes there will be a helicopter pad that you can stand on and repeated press a button for a helicopter to take you out. Basically, the combat sucks. You repeatedly get hit and fall over and it’s never really fun. Only the boss encounters ever really provide any combat enjoyment and they can be frustrating too. But, hey, has survival horror ever had good combat?



I have to recommend this game to anyone who hasn’t had the chance to play it, especially anyone interested in horror games and b-movies. There are just so many great moments and little touches that make the lackluster gameplay worth it. What other game has you go to a wooden dummy factory and get turned into a wooden dummy for half the level? And, to get the “true” ending you have to play a second time not saving any of your friends causing you to lose a piece of clothing after each friend dies so you’re totally nude at the end. I really think the best way to play it is with a group of friends and just go through the entire game in one sitting (it’s not that long). It’s such a refreshing take on survival horror and games in general that it’s sad that a sequel was never made. The developers, Climax Games, did have one other game titled Blue Stinger, but it wasn’t near as good. Although, there is a little Easter Egg in Illbleed for all those Blue Stinger fans out there. Unfortunately, the game's creator, Shinya Nishigaki, died in 2004 from a heart attack and with him so did Crazy Games (Climax Games present name) but Illbleed lives on and is proof of his talent and creativity.

A few weeks ago my fiancé and I were browsing the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art’s gift shop because it’s awesome and I noticed something quite splendid. It was an ice cube tray that makes ice in the shape of the aliens from Space Invaders! Now, I don’t know about everyone but I like ice cubes and I also like Space Invaders so combining the two has to be good. My fiancé asked if I wanted them, I said yes, and she bought them for me because she’s awesome. So, now I have ice shaped like Space Invaders aliens, my life is complete.

So, if any of you out there want your fiancé to buy you a Space Invaders ice cube tray and you can’t make it to the museum gift shop I’ve found the website for the company that makes them here: http://www.worldwidefred.com/iceinvaders.htm

Also, the same company makes a Pac-Man oven mitt that’s pretty nifty here: http://www.worldwidefred.com/pac-manhothead.htm

Enjoy!

So far I’ve reviewed three Champion sports games for the Sega SC-3000 and they’ve come to the grand total of 2 points total with 30 points being possible. That’s an average of .667 out of 10 per game. Well, with Champion Ice Hockey that all changes. This game is so much better than .667 points out of 10 it’s not even funny. Seriously.

I don’t know how it happened but Champion Ice Hockey is actually fun. The teams each have three hockey players each, which, feels like the perfect amount when considering the size of the arena and the processing power of the SC-3000. It never feels too crowded or too empty. There’s also impressive ice physics implemented with the players slipping around as they switch directions and come to complete stops.



The controls are the d-pad to move and one button passes and one button shoots the puck. Shooting the puck is well designed and provides a great sense of accomplishment when a goal is scored. In most modern hockey games I’ve played (which, is very few) it always felt more like luck when I’d score a goal. The player would automatically target the goal and it was hard to aim an exact spot to hit. So, I’d just repeatedly hit the shoot button until the goalie missed one. In Champion Ice Hockey there’s a little arrow behind the goal that shows where the shoot button will hit the puck. By moving your player you can adjust it to find a hole in the goalies defense. It works very well.

Another difference between this game and the other Champion sports games is there’s actually music and lots of sound effects. The music isn’t anything remarkable but it doesn’t grate either and makes the whole game feel more complete than the depressing emptiness of the other Champion games. The sound effects are done well too and help with the immersion to the point that you don’t even notice them.



Graphically, the game does a good job with the limited power of the SC-3000. The players, the crowd, and the arena all are well detailed with the limited colors and are easy recognize. It just shows how lazy of games Champion Baseball and Champion Golf were with their one color silhouette players or even their lack of players at all.

There isn’t much for modes to play and that does cut into the longevity of the game. The only options are to choose between three difficulty levels and when the games over you go back to the start menu. I easily beat the easiest difficulty on my first time playing the game, but the hardest difficulty did put up a good challenge without feeling cheap. There’s also a two player mode, which, is always much more fun than playing the computer.

6.5/10

Okay, I really hope at least one of these Champion (Insert Sport) games is decent. I’ll tell you right now that Champion Golf isn’t, but I have four left to go so there’s still hope. It seems the developers tried to find the laziest and simplest way to make a video game based on the sport of choice, with minimal sound effects and replay-ability.

Champion Golf has sure outdone itself in the crappy visuals department and is actually much worse than I ever anticipated. I was expecting the behind your golfer view and a little map in the corner of the course. Instead you get a giant map with your golfer represented by a white dot. At the top you can see what club you have selected and there’s a hit meter, represented by a guy swinging a club, which never works right. It’s really hard to get a sense of distance or even accomplishment from hitting this little white dot around on the map. Imagine playing a more modern golf game and covering up the whole screen except for the little overhead map and playing from that. Not very fun is it? Well… golf games rarely are fun in my opinion, but this one is especially not fun.



How to hit the ball around the map:

1. Notice that you have a little stick figure caddy that you can move around the edge of the map with the d-pad.
2. Move the caddy between your golfer and where you want to hit the ball.
3. Select a club.
4. Time your button press with the little golfer up in the left corner who is constantly swinging a club. The more he’s wound up when you hit the button the harder the hit.
5. Realize you A) chose the wrong club B) hit the ball too hard C) hit the ball to soft D) aren’t enjoying yourself E) all of the above
6. Start at step 1 again until you A) make it in the hole B) shut off the system C) realize the Apocalypse is occurring D) all of the above

There are so many bad design choices with this game I don’t know where to start. Why aim your ball with a little caddy guy rather than just aim some little simple arrow or something. Maybe it’s just me but I didn’t have the time of my life running around the edge of map with a little guy holding a flag. Also, the hit meter never works. I always either hit it too hard or barely at all. I couldn’t get a medium hit and it’s so confusing of when to hit. They could have just had a simple little meter that was understandable. Then, at least I would know what I was aiming for and I could blame the game programming for the ball not going where I wanted it to. Also, I know nothing about the different clubs or how far I am exactly from the hole. I was pretty much guessing the entire game of what club to use and how hard to hit. A lot of older golf games have this problem, but it still takes away from the fun of the game for me.

There’s also no music and very rarely sound effects, which, seems to be a Champion staple.

Remember how there were slight redeeming features in Champion Baseball and Champion Boxing that allowed me to give them a 1/10? Well, I can’t think of one for Champion Golf.

0/10