Showing posts with label 80's. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 80's. Show all posts

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Gaming As An ArtForm. And This Is A Masterpiece!

If there ever was any doubt that gaming is an art-form, the Shaddow Warrior shreds it to pieces.

The game offers traditional Japanese settings (from the temples and the castles to the mythology and the paintings), rich late 80's environments (from shipyards and inner courtyards to caves and snowy mountains) and a great collection of interesting guns. It may be only 9 in total yet I got more excited when I got the shotgun or the rocket launcher than I ever was finding any one of the bazzilion guns in Borderlands 2.

Each type of enemy has different strengths and different weaknesses so you will have to try to figure out the best and quickest way to put them down. Each gun comes with three purchasable upgrades and augmentations. No sniper rifle because this game wants you to be up close and personal.

The music is sublime, the dialog witty, the atmosphere mesmerizing, the hidden secrets will keep you exploring every nook and cranny (and try again and again to find your way to that impossible to reach bonus statue) and the story unfolds in twists and turns and double-crosses. And the ending will make you misty.

I know it is not fair to this epic game but it does bring to mind the game Daikatana should had been. See, Mr Romero, if you fail to get it right, someone else eventually will. Now, I usually refuse full marks to games that come with an obligatory online digital distribution platform such as STEAM (required here); however, this game is so good I decided to make a rare exception.

Highly Recommended!

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Heraclitus Was Right...


...one cannot step into the same river twice.

I remember coveting after these shoes when I was in high-school. No matter though, my parents could not afford such expensive shoes for all three of us (back in the 80's not everything was manufactured by children-workers or cheap Chinese slave labor, mind you) so I never got them when it would had counted.

Some months ago I noticed these remakes of the classic AirForce1 shoes in store window and picked them up on a nostalgia whim. The shoes are sturdy and comfortable and they can be worn with either jeans or chinos. They are an excellent pair of weekend shoes, especially in the summer.

But, you know, it is just not the same...