Retro Time Part 2

So I was reading a bit and found out they're going to actually make a second Mirror's Edge game. Now, I really liked the first for all the flaws it had (4 hours? srsly?), and I'm quite overjoyed that they'll have a chance to fix the flaws. But how does this factor into another nostalgia binge, this time centered around games? Well.. Mirror's Edge always reminds me of Oni, another excellent game to have a combat system balanced around a mix of weapons and unarmed combat, with a heavy emphasis on disarming your opponents in hand to hand combat, as well as having quite an indepth storyline. Not many people really played or remember Oni, because the company that made it seems to by trying to ignore it as hard as possible in favour of churning out more Halo products. That's right, it's a title Bungie made before locking themselves into the Halo universe to the exclusion of all else. It's also a better game than H:CE. Oni played very much like an anime/manga translated to a game - enemies using special maneuvers will yell the name of said attack, and the story progresses with between-mission cutscenes displaying a japanese artstyle, while the world itself is that special breed of dystopian cyberpunk future that really only shows up in anime like Ghost in the Shell or Dominion Tank Police.

To those of us who grew up in Microsoft households, the Escape Velocity series may be completely foreign, but those of the Mac breed might recognize it. The trilogy largely focused around open-ended freedom, letting you choose to pursue an epic plotline, become a fearsome space pirate, or just completely dominate the galactic economy if that's what you felt like, among other things. I've only ever played the third installment, Escape Velocity: Nova, because it was actually ported to Windows, but I suspect the other two were quite similar in gameplay; that of a heavily improved Asteroids concept. You pilot a ship on a two-dimensional plane, rotating it in either direction and firing the engines to move. Inertia and momentum are heavy factors though, and a lot of combat is actually spent strafing the enemy, turning around, and strafing them again. Bonus points for showing that 20 miniguns hurt just as much as a high tech laser.

I know a fair amount of people in the guild are at least aware of the World of Darkness RPG setting, but for those of you who aren't, it's essentially everything Twilight isn't. The vampires do not sparkle, and the only reason they have any mild interest in humans is for dinner. Or entertainment. Either way it's dark, grim, and decidedly violent in most instances. Troika Games translated it to the Half-Life 2 Source engine before HL2 itself was released, but part of the deal for letting them use Valve's engine was that the game not be released until HL2 was. Since Valve takes forever to get things finished, Troika went bankrupt not long after the game finally got released and subsequently overshadowed by HL2 getting put out at the same time. A further complication was that, since they used a very early version of the Source engine, it was glitchy as hell when it was shipped - to the point that several dedicated employees continued to work for a few weeks without pay to put together a patch to fix the most glaring flaws. Since then, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines has enjoyed an incredibly devoted modding community, with patches being written and applied to this very day, completely overhauling and improving practically every single aspect of the game. It's quite true to the source material, and explores a hell of a lot of content available in the WoD universe, ranging from Gargoyles to Werewolves, to Chinese demons.. very long, very well made, and very fun.

There was a post a few months back regarding the upcoming Secret World MMO. The people who are making that, made a pair of games (meant to be a trilogy, but the third installment is being kept off until the MMO is done...) entitled The Longest Journey, and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. Both are focused on exploration and puzzles, while using the archetypal point-and-click system, sorta like Myst. The basic premise is that there are two dimensions that Earth exists in - one is magic, with technology not working very well, and the other is technological with magic not working very well. The protagonists (and us) live in the second, where Magic is reserved only for those who absolutely need it - say, astronauts trained to use healing and resurrection magic since they won't get any medical treatment in space. Each game starts out with the character wandering around in a somewhat futuristic setting, with Dreamfall being set a few decades after the first, and eventually winding up in the magical world with absolutely no idea wtf is going on. I've never had time to really get through the first game, but Dreamfall was very well done, with an engaging storyline and some pretty interesting characters.

I can't really think of anymore right now, but I know they exist. Thoughts for other games you enjoyed, but that might have slipped past everyone else?