Waiting for Awesome

There hasn't been anything spectacular to get me excited in recent weeks. So I've been working through my backlog of games accumulated in my Steam account...

Syberia

Syberia is the first game in the Syberia series, a relatively modern adventure game series which began in 2002. It features Kate Walker, a young lawyer from America who travels to a small French village, famed for its clockwork toys and inventions, for the purchase of the local clockwork factory. But complications emerge which ensure that the transfer isn't going to be that simple. Soon Kate Walker is having to solve puzzles, many of which feature the village's clockwork creations, to track down the heir to the factory.

As can be seen from the screenshot above, the graphics are quite beautiful - each location is like a beautiful painting. Also the steampunk-ish setting is pretty intriguing. Despite this, I find it hard to really get into the game. The puzzles are a mixed bag, with most being of the trivial kind where it is sufficient to just find the right item and its use is fairly obvious. I've been stumped twice so far and had to resort to the hints from the excellent Universal Hint System. One was a doh moment for a simple but clever puzzle (though the ethics of rummaging around through a priest's stuff is debatable); the other was a pixel hunt for something that could not be seen on my display with its default contrast setting. This latter puzzle is what really put me off; I don't want to have to wade through these kind of annoying puzzles just for the few interesting ones. Maybe I've just gone off adventure games, because this actually sums up most of my recent adventure game experiences.

Fate of the World

Fate of the World is an interesting sim from Red Redemption You're in charge of a global organisation charged with protecting the world from catastrophic climate change. Although it's clearly a sim with plenty of stats and graphs to wade through if desired, the main interface is really simple. You recruit agents in each of the regions and for each agent you have, you can take one action in that region. Each action is represented by a card which describes the cost and affect of the action. The screenshot above illustrates a game where I have two agents in the Middle East and have chosen to Expand Oil Production and Increase Security Presence. This card-based mechanic makes the game a lot more approachable than a hard-core sim.

However, the real-world "impending doom" nature of the subject matter isn't the most compelling. The game is far from preachy regarding climate change and it's simulating of the effects of global warming might be questionable, but I think I prefer a bit more fantasy in my games. The game's certainly worth a play, but despite plenty of different scenarios available, it gets tired quite quickly.

Evil Genius

Played a bit of the 2004 reverse-spy spoof strategy game, Evil Genius. It seems to be quite similar to the classic Dungeon Keeper in which you focus most of your efforts building up your underground lair, recruiting minions and fighting off invading heroes (investigators in Evil Genius parlance). There is a bit more to it as you have your minions perform their villainy around the globe, but I can't help thinking that I've seen this game before in a different skin. Of course, if you're going to draw a lot from another game, Dungeon Keeper's not a bad choice. I still have to complete a full game, so I'm holding onto some hope that it improves.

Portal 2 - Challenges

Valve released the promised Portal 2 DLC extending the co-op campaign and adding single player challenges (histogram-style leaderboards for least portals and fastest time). So no new single player maps to really challenge you, which is a bit of a disappointment. And with my co-op partner on his honeymoon, I've been left with chasing the challenge leaderboards. However, my game crashes every few attempts, making it more frustrating than fun, so I've given up after reaching the least portals in each of the Chapter 1 maps.

Fortunately there's quite a lot of gaming potential coming up. I'm considering picking up Might & Magic: Heroes VI (the bizarrely named next game in the Heroes of Might and Magic series) or Forza 4 (the Xbox-exclusive racing game), both out now. Also Football Manager 2012 is due this weekend. What's most piquing my interest is the the next World of Warcraft patch now on the PTR (for beta-testing). It introduces the new Raid Finder tool for easy 25-man pick-up groups, along with a new raid featuring Deathwing, Cataclysm's headlining villainous dragon. I'm quite looking forward to the opportunity to do my first World of Warcraft raiding since Wrath of the Lich King.