alice: madness returns

so, alice: madness returns as a reboot of the early naughties 'under the radar' classic unreal mod 'american mcgee's alice'. Alice as a videogame character? she's perfect... suitablely dark and sarcastic... she goes steampunk on our asses with her vorpal blade mele and pack of throwing cards ranged she's pretty kickass. ...so drop her in mid Victorian workhouse london, with that mad look in her eye... ...curiouser & curiouser...

journey

'it's not the destination,
but the journey that counts...'

i've just played through about half of journey and it's a gorgeous game.
reminds me lot ofico. although in this game there are no baddies.
no, this is far more zen.
no instructions,
no massive backstory fmv,
you are just plonked in the desert
without a word
and you have to figure it out for yourself.
now, i don't want to say too much
about the gameplay,
because a lot of the fun of the game
is discovering how just cool it is.
safe to say
it is very cool.

what really enthused me about journey
was the multiplayer
which is lovely in it's simplicity.
there is only one mode..:
you are paired with some random person
who is at the same stage as you are
and you solve the level together
voicelessly swapping tricks and tips.

'if you want go fast, go alone
if you want to go far,
go together'

it's a beautiful thing.

little big planet

well, little big planet is an just adorable fairy godmother of all platformers.
the vocal stylings of stephen fry humourously show you the ropes and playing on a PSP the game mechanic seems pretty solid.
and then you get to a level called gift of the grab and the the best popsong you'll hear for a long time glistens and glitters in your ears in fact the music is excellent and diverse throughout.
the customisation of this game is deep
as you play through the levels
you gain building blocks and gadgets
with which you can contruct,
upload and share your own levels.
and theres a hell of a lot of levels out there,
people have got extremely creative with it
leading to endless replayability
which is always a good thing in a game.
highly recommended.
10/10.
5 stars.

everybody's gone to the rapture

the second game after dear esther from developers the chinese room. this is the archers on acid... beautiful soundtrack...

the importance of music in games

the secret of a great game is gameplay of course, but the secret of a truly memorable game is music. from the inspired 50's jazzy compilations of bioshock, bioshock 2, fallout 3, the radio station in far cry 3, the beautiful and quirky soundtracks of legend of zelda (that dungeon theme is a real earworm) and final fantasy VI and VII, the ambient avant-gardeness of hexic, the gorgeous minimalness of riven and journey, the haunting etheral melancholy of jessica curry's music for both dear esther & everybody's gone to the rapture, the classically flavoured echochrome, to the bluesy western inspired red dead redemption and bastion.

hexic

hexic is a wonderful little match three puzzler with a twist, literally, that every xbox360 owner will know, as it comes bundled with the console. invented by the russian creator of tetris, yeah, that guy, you might suspect this game is addictive, and you'd be right. couple that with an amazing avant garde ambient soundtrack by urbex and you've got a doozy. you can play it free online here.

nation states

nation states is an interesting one, an humerous and satirical online only MMO about nation building & politics.
if you were a tinpot dicator what would you do? vote yourself out of existance? free malteasers for everyone? ban socks and sandals for those under 30?
just like real like life there are the destroyers playing the game as badassfully & evilly as possible (of course, it is more fun being a baddie) hehe! hilarious!
so choose your allies carefully...