Heart of Darkness

You know when you see something and you remember it but…. not really anything specific about it?

Well someone mentioned an old PS1/PC game called Heart of Darkness to me the other day and this happened. A friend of mine had it on the PS1 when I was like, seven, and I used to adore watching him play it.  So I hunted down some videos and Youtube and my God. It was an absolute GEM of a title! Beautifully inspired pre-rendered environments that you could interact with, a really dark and sinister plot and of course, some pretty classic side scrolling action (albeit Abes Oddesy).

I am so hunting this down.

All Will Be Revealed… In The Credits

 

Ah Still Alive from the Portal credits. Let’s face it, whether you like it or not, it was genius. I mean, who saw that coming? Honestly. It was immense, and I don’t think I’ve laughed so much because of end credits… well ever.

 

I never thought I’d be impressed with another credit song, but then I finished Precipice Of Darkness and… Well. I discovered the song below :P

 

It takes a while to get into, but the lyrics are hilarious.

 

A Productive Day

Oh yea! I finished an RPG today, can you believe it?

 

I really, REALLY enjoyed (Pauses for breath) Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. It was a fantastic blend of humor, fresh game play and some truly fantastic artwork. In fact, I don’t think I’ve enjoyed a game this much in a long time. Bravo, Penny Arcade boys. Bravo.

 

In other news, Peggle has been confirmed for the PSN with trophies (something that made me beam with joy) and Quake Live is as epic as… well Epic. Speaking of Epic, they should really jump on the bandwagon and make a free to play browser based Unreal Tournament. I mean, that would rock.

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode One

Bought this, this morning. To be honest, I kinda regretted it straight after because I hadn’t read… GOOD reviews for it. Just average ones. Still, it was already downloading so I sighed, set my PS3 to shut down after download and off I went to college.

 

I got home around 8, wandered down the local Tesco with a mate and got back around 9. I booted it up, sighed, and began playing.

 

Let me tell you, I love Penny Arcade. The web comic is funny as hell, and never fails to deliver off the wall yet true to life wit and humor. It’s a must read. No doubt my obsession with the web comic was one of the factors that led me to buying this game. So why was I so cynical about my purchase? Well firstly it’s an RPG and I don’t really do RPG’s… Also, it’s episodic. Meaning that no matter how long they claim it is, It just wont be.

 

As usual though, I ate my own words (for the record, they taste rather rich like fruitcake, and as you well know, fruitcake is the preffered choice of desert for a liar). I love this game. It’s around 6-8 hours long (or so I’ve heard), has a rather fresh combat system (it’s just the usual turn based, but it’s not as strict as Final Fantasy) and, best of all it is funny as hell. It really left me wetting myself with laughter. It’s brilliant.

 

The character creation system is pretty impressive as well. Your character appears in the cut scenes, fully animated in 2D. It’s rather clever!