Последние обзоры Revolter

What a fun ride that was! Thank you, Leonard Menchiari, Daniele Vicinanzo and Giulio Perrone!

What this really a remaster of is: Another Word, Flashback and Prince of Persia-style of games (a genre known conventionally as "cinematic platformer"), with graphics from Blade Warrior - although this last one could easily be a coincidence.

Modern features are mostly there for replayability; they're non-intrusive and do not comprise core gameplay: NG+, 2 playable characters, hidden upgrades, speedrunning-conscious shortcuts, and multiple endings. However, what makes this game special - is its unmistakable cinematic platformer stuff: fluid 2D-animations, inspired environments, movie-like video- and gameplay sequences, tough jumps, deathtraps, short bursts of intense combat... and deaths. Lots and lots of fall-, spike-, timing- and enemy-induced player deaths :) Although checkpoints are plentiful, so the difficulty isn't too hard.

Eternal Castle 1987 is clearly a labor of love, and its screenshots are not doing it justice (there is an awesome trailer, at least...). I urge everybody to not mistake it for a pseudo-8Bit low-effort shovelware title Steam has become infamous for in recent years. It really is more like what Ion Fury, DUSK or WRATH: Aeon of Ruin are to 90's shooters - but made for an even smaller group of fans.

Guys, don't be silly and do your research before purchasing old games outright and pretending to be scammed directly afterwards. Some neat facts for newbies:

- 99% of DOS games are sold with DOSBox emulator embedded and pre-configured;
- There was no Windows version of Earthworm Jim 2 (only Earthworm Jim 1);
- DOS version of Earthworm Jim 2 is different from console versions (yes, no Lorenzen's Soil level);
- DOS version of Earthworm Jim 2 is actually more advanced than colsole versions technically (the resolution is higher, music is CD-quality) and was made to run on 486 PCs (not 386s).

Check the wiki or something...

Also, this was the first and only rendition of EWJ2 I played in the 90s, and I love it to this day. The console versions all seem filtered and muffled to me :P

The best game I have ever bought.

And I will have everyone listen to its soundtrack on my funeralz \o/

Being a Minecraft fan, I looked down upon the infamous Terraria for quite a long time, deemed its existence as a small nuisance. What's there not to overlook? The controls are obviously goggle-eyed alien in comparison to the simple 3D-roaming FPS-ness, the graphics look inappropriate for a complex game, and there is an overall feeling that the game refuses to take the "crafting" genre seriously. These were my first impressions.

However, after 2 hours into the game, I've started to notice its sleeping greatness - the game is insanely HUGE in almost every aspect!! The worlds virtually span in 4 directions: there are your typical landscape biomes that include Forest, Jungle, Desert, Winter and a few more, each having their distinctly themed caverns underneath, which are biomes on their own, but also there is reportedly more terrain high above in the clouds (25 hours into the game, and I still haven't finished exploring the ground and below-ground level worlds!).

The amount and variety of the craftable stuff is immense! There is any set of decorative, combat and building equipment imaginable: for starters, there are myriads of building brick types alone! Even the wood has different color, depending on the forest type you chose to harvest. Seriously, imagine a device, a potion or a house equipment - Terraria has it!

There is also a huge variety of monsters, bosses (although the ones I've managed to fight so far have similar behavior), guarded dungeons, summoning rituals, NPCs (yes, unlike Minecraft - the game offers you to interact with unique characters that appear when you build a new room, with material and complexity of your choice, and which allow you to learn crafting recipes from them, and buy otherwise uncraftable equipment in order to bring balance into the game progression), and the sheer amount of stuff to be indulged into!

Also, there are genuenly fun combat and adventure aspects - I will never forget our descent to the center of the Underground jungle - a place that changed our characters forever (also, the Queen Bee drops awesome sword!).

If you have something to like about the game already, but are in doubt, or if you love Minecraft, as well as old-school graphics (represented here with MUCH more effort and finesse, than in most pixelated indie titles of today, virtually making it SNES-grade in terms of quality), my advice is - go for it, and you will inevitably love it. Just be sure to invite some friends (I play with just one, but it is already one of, if not the best, multiplayer experiences I've had in years).

Решили с другом из интереса заглянуть в эту жемчужину первых двухтысячных... О боги, этот быстрый, пьянящий, безумный мультиплеер!!! Ключ к успеху - низкий запас HP, скорость бега выше, чем в Q3, и ножи, убивающие с одного взмаха!

Рекомендую!

Появивившись на свет не когда-нибудь, а в 2012-м году, в эпоху, уже давно сменившую истинное время экспериментов, энтузиазма и любви к своим творениям, игра Spec Ops: The Line оглушающим выстрелом штурмовой винтовки поставила для меня точку в неутихающих спорах: "Могут ли ещё выходить достойные игры со смелыми идеями (порода которых, казалось, никому не нужна уже лет 10 как)?".

Показательный случай - вы знали, что для прорыва в засильи заскорузлых "шутеров-про-войну", "Лучшей игры года в качестве нарратива 2012", и совершенно неформатной, запоминающейся игры, которая возвращает веру в, достаточно лишь неосторожного указания крупного издателя "Вот вам деньги - сделайте игру, шутер, единственные условия - это название "Spec Ops" и военная тематика."?

А получился, друзья, самый настоящий предмет электронного искусства - лебедь под личиной обезьяны, трагедия, начинающаяся с анекдота и ружьё, которое никогда не выстрелит - это драматургия a la "трипл-А", виртуозный эксперимент в интерактивности и одна из самых богатых атмосферой игр по эту сторону улицы. Кто не успел - тот пропустил, возможно, самый лучший сюжет шутера нашего времени, а также однозначный хит, который однако, достаточно умело избегает взора своей подлинной аудитории. Просто прочтите:

Critics have pointed out that the "mechanics" of the game—the actions available to the player, and the responses resulting from said actions—contrast pointedly with many mechanics of popular FPS games, and that the game deliberately used shooter genre clichés in order to illustrate how ludicrous they are in comparison to real warfare.[7] In particular contrast to other games of its kind, some critics believe that Spec Ops: The Line does not intend the combat to be a fun experience for the player, but rather aims to engage the player through its narrative which critiques the shooter genre for being removed from reality and providing players with an unrealistic, morally ambiguous escapist fantasy.

Засим мой трибьют этой игре, знакомству с которой я необычайно рад и благодарен, я кончаю. Просто удивительно, как обманчив может быть современный маркетинг, и какую силу, на самом деле, имеет пресловутое "сарафанное радио" :)

Welcome to Dubai, gentlemen!

Часть поистине непревзойдённой и уникальной в своём роде серии, где все насущно важные в других играх элементы - геймплей, графика, звук - являются лишь несущей платформой для нарратива. Такого сюжета, как здесь, не было и не будет больше нигде. Эми Хэнниг - автор истории, которую рассказывают игры серии Legacy of Kain - была послана нам с небес под видом человеческой женщины, чей писательский гений тяжело переоценить, и до сих пор является одной из самых успешных женщин-девелоперов за всё время.

Кто не играл - пропустил самую необыкновенную, сложную и трагичную историю, которую когда-нибо рассказывали компьютерные игры.