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Shorter day today. Thankfully. I may actually play some games and get some more stuff written. As previously stated, I’ll use this space to briefly touch upon things I’ll be writing more about elsewhere. And Richard Garriott just continues to cement his inescapable presence at Fantastic Arcade as…
1. He was a guest for a live episode of This Spartan Life, a very odd and interesting show. Even moreso live. For those unfamiliar, it essentially an interview format show recorded during a Halo multiplayer match. It uses Halo’s theatre mode tools in the editing process. It’s essentially taking a basic and common occurrence we’re familiar with and dropping it into the most absurd virtual setting.
It’s odd in itself watching game developer and celebrity interviews being done in video game map via Xbox Live. Watching Garriott pop off Grunts while explaining Old Space vs. New Space is pretty priceless.
2. I played Monaco yesterday solo and found it quite a bit of fun. I think creator Andy Schatz’s description of it as a cross between Ocean’s Eleven, Pacman and Hitman makes a fairly spot-on analogy. And as fun as I found it on it’s own, it’s really comes into it’s own in full 4-player co-op as got to play today. Without teamwork, it an become a mess quickly (though 4 skilled people on the easiest level can get themselves through being somewhat out for self. On a harder level, however, a lack of coordination makes the caper tale a suicide mission . Taking advantage of character specific strengths to get through is rather rewarding.
3. “Something can be more powerful if you hide it a bit.” Those of the words of Feist developer Adrian Stutz in explaining going for the shadow siloutte art design in the game. It’s not completely as there is some lighting effects exposing more than just shadowy figures making it feel less the dark game Limbo does. However, much like Limbo, the artistic feel is beautifully crafted.
4. Really seemed to have some issues playing Hydrophobia. This was after taking it out of inverted Y-axis which I dislike. I mostly feel the game controls well in the basic mechanics in the demo. Certainly not the best platforming or shooting mechanic I’ve seen but it works as well as it needs. I like it would be a rather fun experience with an interesting use of water if I ever felt I had the camera completely under control in key moments. Particularly while swimming wherein I never felt I could get it properly centered while having to swim vertically.