Do you ever wish that the golden days of LucasArts adventure games could return? Well, they won’t. But fans of the genre keep getting better at making their very own adventure games - much due to the fact that there’s a wide array of tools out there to make adventure games, such as the popular Adventure Game Studio.
Ben There, Dan That! by Zombie Cow Studios is one of those games. It has everything a fan of adventure games could ever want, and it’s FREE (donations are welcome though).
The game begins with a simple puzzle and a hilarious plot that just reeks of reference-humor. I can’t help but to fall in love instantly and declare that this game is absolutely awesome! After sorting out how to bring a zombie back to life, you’ll be introduced to the main plot of the game which is to get the TV-signal back up so the guys can watch Magnum P.I. How can you go wrong with such a plot? Do you really need to read anymore? Just go ahead and download it right NOW.
You look a bit tied up there, Zombie-Dan.
The puzzles involve roaming about randomly to try to grab as many things to put in your inventory as possible. Then you combine these things in some elaborate way to make your way to the next place where you’ll be roaming around randomly. All in good adventure gaming tradition of course. The difficulty level isn’t that high, so you shouldn’t be too frustrated with this game even if you’re a complete newbie with adventure games. And even if it’s somehow too much you can enjoy the game by going through the walkthrough with clues on Zombie Cow Studios website.
The visuals are very reminiscent of the good ol’ adventure games such as Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle or Sam & Max. Although not as detailed, but very much in the same spirit and style, which makes you feel right at home walking through the different rooms. The animations are far and few between, but once you get to one, it’s always a pay-off.
There are plenty of sound effects and some of them are really right on. Such as the “yoink!” sound when Ben picks up something. There’s background ambience sound in almost every room which is a really nice touch. There are no speaking voices, but that really isn’t necessary.
There are lots of jokes that references old adventure games and promptly make fun of them, and for someone like me who loves those good ol’ games: hilarity ensued. The writing is very much in the same style as fan would be used to, but there’s even jokes here that people who haven’t played any adventure game will enjoy.
There are a few bugs, but nothing major. And sometimes it gets a little annoying having to wait for Ben and Dan to walk all the way to the exit your clicking at. If one could double-click his way out of a room, that’d be swell! (hint).
Ben and Dan hanging around some Zombies.
Pros/Cons
+ Great graphics and sound effects that will bring you back to “the good ol’ days”.
+ Lots of fun
- A bit short.
Conclusion
All in all, this is a wonderful humourus adventure game that will appeal to all the fans of the classics and newbies to adventure gaming alike. The graphics, sound effects and story-line is everything you could hope for. This game DELIVERS. Go get it NOW. And, consider donating, so that the developers can be inspired to create an even better sequel!
This post was cross-posted on NekoGumi on 2009-01-02.
So, Metallica put out a new album. And this time they weren’t gonna do a complete sellout. They were gonna go back to the sound of “…And justice for All” and the with that: the sounds of the good ol’ days. Happiness was supposed to ensue, but of course, something went wrong. No, they didn’t put out another Load/Reload, the songs are all great and I’m sure the songs will sound awesome on tour. No, they didn’t use a shit producer this time around, they used the legendary Rick Rubin.
The problem this time, is that the audio on the CD is so LOUD that the audio keeps clipping and thus makes the songs completly unlistenable in some areas. Here’s an example (from the retail cd): Click to listen. If you think that compression might have caused these distortions and you wish you could hear an uncompressed sample, then click here.
If you can’t hear it.. then you might wanna go check your hearing. There’s an obvious buzzing noise when there’s supposed to be a slight increase in volume. This is what they in the industry call “clipping”
Clipping is a form of waveform distortion that occurs when an amplifier is overdriven, which happens through attempts to increase the voltage or current beyond its maximum power capability.
This is the waveform for the 'The Day That Never Comes' sample that you just listened to.
So, five years after the complete letdown that St. Anger was (to most of the fans anyway) due to the horrible production and lack of awesome Kirk-solos. Metallicas attempts to put out an awesome album was yet again foiled due to shoddy sound engineering. How could this have happened?
Didn’t they listen to the tracks before putting them on the cd? Or were there just too many steps of production, mastering, remastering, etc, with this problem showing up too late in the process for anyone to notice it before printing? Don’t worry, we’ll find out in due time. But in the meantime you can check out lots of other morons discussing it here.
But wait, there’s more (and this is the best part). The album recently became available for Guitar Hero 3 on Xbox360/PS3 and that version does NOT have any of these clipping problems. Don’t believe me? Listen to this.
Shocking isn’t it? One wonders how they managed to send a proper version to Neversoft but couldn’t manage to print a good sounding version on CD! I guess you got to buy your albums for video games nowadays if you don’t want them ridden with sound distortion problems!
The waveform for the Guitar Hero 3 version of the sample.
If you don’t have an Xbox360 or a PS3, you might just find the Guitar Hero 3 version on the internet somewhere…
Some further reading on this topic:
Today at my local supermarket I saw something pretty amazing. The woman in front of me at the counter was gonna have to pay 286 SEK (~41.9 USD) for the few goods she had picked. She looked at the clerk with a face that seemed to say “you are ripping me off, bitch” while handing over a coupon. The clerk immediately gave the coupon back to the woman since it wasn’t signed. After some muttering the woman signed it and handed it over to the clerk again. But of course, the clerk couldn’t get the coupon to register in the machine and after what seemed like a few hundred tries, the clerk just put the numbers on the coupon in manually.
The woman smiled in victory once the coupon registered and the total went down to 283 SEK (~41.5 USD). She then realizes that she has forgotten something and asks for 2 packages of cigarettes. The total goes up to 393 SEK (~57.6 USD). The woman walks away smiling.
There’s a moral here. You try to find it.
Correct Answer: The store charges way too much for cigarettes.
Recently EA published the seemingly cool and groundbreaking game Spore that was developed by Maxis. This has caused a lot of controversy in the PC-gaming world.
Wait what? Why would a cool new game be controversial to the gamers? Even hooker-sex and murdering old grannies won’t upset gamers, so what the hell could’ve gotten gamers all up in arms about this title?
Well, there’s actually nothing wrong with the game itself. It’s the DRM included in the package that got gamers all riled up. On Amazon there are currently 1,965 reviews, out of those, 1,814 gives the game a 1-star rating. Here’s what the currently voted most helpful review says:
“The game incorporates a draconian DRM system that requires you to activate over the internet, and limits you to a grand total of 3 activations. If you reach that limit, then you’ll have to call EA in order to add one extra activation. That’s not as simple as it sounds, since when you reach that point EA will assume that you, the paying customer, are a filthy pirating thief. You will need to provide proof of purchase, reasons why the limit was reached, etc, etc (it has all happened before with another recent EA product, Mass Effect). EA, of course, is not obligated to grant you that extra activation or even provide that service. In a couple of years they might very well even shut down the general activation servers, because “it’s not financially feasible” to keep them running. What you will be left with is a nice, colorful $50 coaster. And you will be required to pay for another copy/license if you want to continue playing.
This basically means that you are actually RENTING the game, instead of owning it. The game WILL stop to function in the future. That’s inevitable, because even if EA keeps the activation servers going, there IS going to be a time when EA will simply cease to exist because of financial issues or federal laws (like most businesses eventually do).”
The real irony here is that the people who decided to download the cracked version (that came out 5 days before store release), won’t have to deal with any of this. So, the end result:
- Piracy wasn’t thwarted in any way whatsoever.
- Paying customers end up with an inferior product that can only be installed three times, requires internet for activation, might not work at all in the future and could likely cause your cd/dvd-burner to stop functioning. And on top of that, they will be treated like criminals as soon as they complain.
I think I’ve made my point already. But just for fun, here are some other quotes from the amazon review page:
“I purchased Spore directly from EA on Sunday night when it was released, and have yet to even install it because EA forces you to install their “EA Download Manager” first, which won’t install on my machine (Vista Home Premium). So I am here, 2 days later, no response from EA support to my open tickets, not able to even install the game that I paid for. I’ve opened a paypal dispute against EA/DigitalRiver but I doubt I am going to get my money back. Looks like EA made an easy $50 off me, but I promise you EA, it will be your last. “
“I wanted to voice my concern over the DRM. Electronic Arts, if you are reading this, take notes.
No one wants DRM in their video games.
I have long awaited the release of Spore; I was going to run out and purchase a “copy” until I heard about the 3 time install limit. This is worse then Microsoft Window’s activation scheme. Until the DRM is removed, I will not purchase this game.”
“The DRM for the game utilizes securom which is essentially a virus that installs itself without warning when you install the game. There is no way to completely remove it without reformatting and it is constantly running in the background if not removed. Sucking up computer resources.
It also is overpriced. This is actually a RENTAL, not a bought game because it only lets you install 3 times. If you install over 3 times then you must call EA customer support and beg them to let you play the game you bought. Did I mention the call is not free? If you live outside the U.S. it will be a very expensive call.”
Hopefully EA will learn it’s lesson and NOT use DRM in the future. Maybe they could learn a thing or two from Stardock and Gas Powered Games.
Just a small update this time, by the request of Chaitanya.
4.1 Changelog:
- Added: Option to disable bold in media stats
- Fixed: Minor Mplayerc bug
Download v4.1
(The old version (3.2) that doesn’t use COM can be downloaded from here)
Don’t forget to read the readme before asking me any questions.
