review

Review: Fantastic Contraption

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Fantastic Contraption is many things. Part physics toy, part puzzle game, part sandbox, all wonderful and frustrating and delightful combined. The idea is not a new one; you have a set level with an object that must be moved, terrain it must be moved over or through, and a goal space it must reach. To accomplish the moving bit, you have some pre-set components you can use to build various contraptions

Review: Choose Your Own Adventure - The Abominable Snowman DVD

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By Gordon S. McLeod

As a longtime fan of the Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) books and of interactive fiction in general, it was with great pleasure that I learned of the CYOA: The Abominable Snowman DVD about a month or so ago. (Note: This review was written years before being reposted in this blog.)

It’s been years since I read any of the books, but the memories rushed back quickly enough. I used to spend hours going through the various possible twists and turns the stories could take, dreading the early ending that death inevitably resulted in, doing my best to find the longest paths through the books.

When finally I saw the new DVD on a store shelf the other day, I snapped it up, eager to see what they’d done with the franchise. DVD is a video medium perfectly suited to this type of storytelling; indeed, this isn’t the first title that has tried this kind of storytelling in DVD format. A number of old laserdisc-based arcade games like Dragon’s Lair, Space Ace and their sequels have appeared on DVD, fully playable. There’s also the recent release of Final Destination 3, which has an interesting “create your own movie” mode where you select the fates of the various characters as you watch in much the same way that you play this disc.

So on to the meat of the review, shall we? Choose Your Own Adventure: The Abominable Snowman DVD boasts 11 possible stories, which disappointed me at first. Familiar as I was with the books, I expected more – but when I sat down to play this disc, it surprised me.

The experience is much like watching a good quality kid’s cartoon; the story goes on for some time before you’re called on to make a choice. There’s plenty to watch and pay attention to, and when the choice points do come up, they feel fittingly weighty and important.

If there’s one problem with the storytelling, it’s that it borrows a little too heavily from the children’s cartoon legacy that its format takes from. Unlike the books, which had you running the risk of dying at every turn, you don’t seem to be able to die at all in this DVD. This is a shame, as that constant looming specter of death was thrilling as a kid, and I miss it in this release.

The controls are also something of a problem; it took me well over an hour to master the choice controls. As I’m an avid video gamer, I’m used to learning new control systems, so this bothered me. I had a few unfortunate instances where I did not get the choice I wanted. I was not quick enough with the remote and failed to get the choice indicator that should appear while you’re selecting. I doubt they’ll be revising their stance on player death in future releases, but I do hope they’ll take a look at the controls a little more closely and refine them a bit for future discs.

The branches of the stories are distinct and imaginative. It’s been long enough that I can’t compare the endings to the ones in the print version, but experiencing them anew, I was pretty satisfied with the types of ends you could reach. You will find yourself journeying through various geographic areas with differing looks and feels, and you will meet various characters in different ways from story to story. The potential for repeat viewing on this disc is hard to beat.

The vocal cast is excellent, lead by William H. Macy and Frankie Muniz, with notable appearances by Lacey Chabert, Felicity Huffman and Mark Hamill. The animation and vocals are better than you’d expect to find in a cartoon TV show, resembling more what you’d find in many animated movies.

So now we reach the end of the review. You have two choices before you.

If you dismiss the Choose Your Own Adventure DVD from your mind, turn to another random web page. If you find it fascinating and want to experience more, turn instead to your favorite DVD retailer or rental service.

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Review: The Bard's Tale

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The Bard's Tale PC box
Image via Wikipedia

By Gordon S. McLeod

This review was written as a game journalism assignment during my time as a student at the International Academy of Design & Technology, and was subsequently published at http://www.elecplay.com/, the home of Electric Playground online. The complete review can be found in its original location, here.

Embark on a deathly serious quest for coin and cleavage with a character voiced by The Man in Black from The Princess Bride. And hey, there's a pretty solid ARPG in there too. What's not to like?

The Bard's Tale seems, much like its titular hero, to have gained a bit of a reputation for itself. Maybe I've just been talking to the wrong people, but it seems to me that people see it as just a funny, silly game not to be taken too seriously. "Haha, boobies! And hey, it has that guy from The Princess Bride!" This is a shame, as it's one of the better games I've played in a long time and gamers would do well to look at it a bit closer before writing it off.

First off is the pedigree this game carries. Some younger gamers may not realize this, but this is actually the fifth Bard's Tale game. Way back in the C64 days of computing, the first four Bard's Tale games satiated the appetites of gamers just learning the joys of computer RPGs. The new Bard's Tale is the creation of the same man, Brian Fargo, who went on to work on a number of other CRPG titles like Baldur's Gate and Fallout.

That's not to say that this new game's reputation is completely unfounded. It doesn't even pretend to take itself too seriously. The humour is frequently on the lewd and crude side, and the game's packaging itself seems to encourage that perception by billing it as a "quest for coin and cleavage," so sure, many people will view it that way. But for those who care to venture deeper, there’s a lot more in store.

To read the rest, please visit Electric Playground.

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Review: Tim Burton's Corpse Bride DVD

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Tim Burton's Corpse Bride
Image via Wikipedia

By Gordon S. McLeod

Note: This is an old review I wrote long ago for my writing portfolio. I'm reposting it here because my experiments with creating pages for the portfolio pieces is not going well; there are some technical hurdles I could clear, but that I don't see much value in attempting to clear. So I'm going to repost ALL of my portfolio writing into the blog, categorized as Portfolio pieces.

Somehow I missed this film when it was in theatres; I guess I was too busy with school or something else I thought was more important. Shame on me. As a Tim Burton fan, I may never get over my disappointment in myself.

Oh well, anyway. I picked up my copy of Corpse Bride recently, and enjoyed it thoroughly, as I was sure I would. I must preface this with an admission however - I've heard an awful lot of people comparing it to A Nightmare Before Christmas, but I won't be one of them because frankly, it's been so long since I've seen Nightmare that I really can't remember it well enough at all to compare them. Maybe I'll do a comparison review when I revisit that film.

Johnny Depp takes centre stage, as he does in many of Burton's films. He plays the young lad Victor, soon to be pressed into marriage by parents. Victoria, the young woman he's to wed, comes from a noble but bankrupt family who see Victor as their key to regaining wealth, much as they hate the thought of joining their blood to the rising wealthy middle class.

Things don't go as planned, however; Victor stammers and stumbles his way through the wedding rehearsal and, embarassed and upset, runs off to practice his vows in the dark wood beyond the city. There, placing the ring upon what he thought was a gnarled old branch, he finds himself face to face with another bride, Emily - the titular Corpse Bride, who wastes no time in pulling him into the Land of the Dead.

Stylistically, this movie has got some very appropriate images going here, with the Land of the Dead echoing the style of the Land of the Living in its design and architecture. There's an interesting contrast at play in that the living inhabit a world reminiscent of Victorian England, a very repressed, somber, uninviting atmosphere that is captured in the movie quite well; all of the more tender moments in this world tend to happen behind closed doors. The Land of the Dead, on the other hand, is a very vibrant, colourful place with a lot of action and good cheer; the dearly departed are free from the social constrictions of the living and they revel in it.

The core of the story is something of a love triangle as Victor tries to find his way back to the land of the living while growing to sympathise with Emily and her plight, but still wanting to spend his life with Victoria above. The interplay between the two worlds and the two tugs on Victor's heart are beautifully played, and left me unsure through most of the film which bride I should be rooting for.

This movie is brand new to DVD, so I'll not spoil too much of the meat of it, nor the ending; suffice to say if you enjoy the films of Tim Burton, give this one a try.

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