By John Walker on September 2nd, 2010 at 7:43 pm.
Perhaps there’s no need to even tell you that a demo of Vera Blanc: Ghost In The Castle is out, as you’ll no doubt have already eagerly downloaded it by now. No? Oh, well then I’ll tell you about this detective game as best I can.
Vera, like so many, was a child prodigy at 14, when she got brain cancer. Her multi-billionaire father got her special treatment in France where doctors restructured her brain “like a computer”, meaning she now has extraordinary capacities for knowledge, and of course the ability to read minds.
Paired up with paranormal investigator Brandon Mackey, she investigates mysterious goings on, while keeping her supernatural abilities a closely guarded secret. Oooooh.
And this is all presented in stated comic-like images, with sixty million billion lines of text to click through. And every now and then Vera shows us her bra.
It’s entertainingly incongruous to the rest of the game – what is ultimately a glorified version of hangman. She’ll suddenly find it a bit hot in here, and whip them out to the astonishment of every man in the vicinity. And then read someone’s mind by slowly guessing at the letters that might appear in the phrase they’re thinking of.
Utterly bonkers, and not especially good, but blimey, novel.
02/09/2010 at 19:47 Freud says:
Ah Vera. Perhaps I should have asses…
BAN THIS SICK FILTH
02/09/2010 at 19:51 robrob says:
Asses perhaps I should have Vera, ah?
02/09/2010 at 22:31 Dlarit says:
Asses The Asses virus has spread to another thread! oh nooos!!
02/09/2010 at 19:55 Fred Wester, CEO of Paradox says:
I’m Fred Wester, CEO of Paradox, and I approve this message of boobs, castles and boobs in castles.
02/09/2010 at 19:59 Fred Wester, CEO of Paradox says:
Right.
02/09/2010 at 19:59 Flappybat says:
Perhaps the bra is the source of her mind reading power?
02/09/2010 at 21:36 perilisk says:
It makes it pretty easy to guess what a guy is thinking, I’ll grant you that.
02/09/2010 at 20:06 Duoae says:
Hehe, looks interesting. Did i miss the link though? Usually there’s one around in the article somewhere :)
02/09/2010 at 20:06 SheffieldSteel says:
I misunderstood the presence of the ellipsis and thought it was extra characters. Perhaps I should have Asperger’s? That doesn’t fit :-(
02/09/2010 at 20:06 ts061282 says:
Ah, Vera. Perhaps I should have asked…
02/09/2010 at 20:23 Zyrxil says:
…whether you wanted to meet my tattooed biker pals in the park today.
02/09/2010 at 20:39 fallingmagpie says:
…before gently cupping your heaving breasts.
BAN THIS…etc.
02/09/2010 at 20:34 Jugglenaut says:
Ah, Vera. Perhaps I shanty have aspes?
02/09/2010 at 21:30 stahlwerk says:
Comic Sans MS on the website. Seriously?
BAN THIS FONT!
02/09/2010 at 21:31 Vinraith says:
What is it with people and hating that font?
03/09/2010 at 00:19 Hidden_7 says:
I think when it’s gotten to a point where someone is legitimately upset over a font / typeface then they need to take a good hard look at their life, and its relative lack of real problems.
03/09/2010 at 00:40 Robert says:
There are fonts that suit certain media and don’t fit other. Comic Sans does not belong on websites. It’s influenced by fonts typical in comics/cartoons and many people believe it should stay there.
However, this is not Comic Sans. It does have similarities. Looking at the S you can see a difference.
03/09/2010 at 00:43 Robert says:
“I think when it’s gotten to a point where someone is legitimately upset over a font / typeface then they need to take a good hard look at their life, and its relative lack of real problems.”
I’d say that discussions concerning a post about cartoon BOOBS on a serious website fall under that same category, so lets collectively look at our lives.
03/09/2010 at 01:04 Hidden_7 says:
“I’d say that discussions concerning a post about cartoon BOOBS on a serious website fall under that same category, so lets collectively look at our lives.”
My point was that if you can find the energy to get legitimately upset about a typeface being used then you probably have a pretty sweet life. I can’t see how having a lack of real problems is anything other than a good thing.
I dunno if simply discussing cartoon boobs in a rather jokey way on a site that is fairly serious, but never grim and often very willing to be silly and have a laugh, falls under the same sort of “first world problems” heading that I’d put “being angry at Comic Sans” under, but I suppose that’s fairly subjective. If people were really upset that RPS was mired in this sort of filth and ludicrousness then I’d be right there with you.
02/09/2010 at 21:36 stahlwerk says:
I think this piece sums up my opinion on it quite nicely.
Comic Sans is a douche.
Anyway, they should have used Vera Sans. ;-)
02/09/2010 at 21:43 robrob says:
http://achewood.com/index.php?date=07052007
02/09/2010 at 21:47 stahlwerk says:
now I feel bad about my opinion on a font face. He looks so good meaning and easy going.
You wanted to talk to the monsters?
here I am :-(
02/09/2010 at 22:20 Kryopsis says:
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/monologues/15comicsans.html
02/09/2010 at 23:11 Celso Riva says:
the fun thing is that the font IS NOT actually comic sans :D is an opentype font which I forgot the name.
03/09/2010 at 00:42 Shih Tzu says:
Well, my HTML is not so much rusty as it is nonexistent, but the styles.css seems to specify font-family “cursive” with the font-variant “small-caps”. Doesn’t that mean it defaults to Comic Sans on most systems? It sure as heck looks like the beast to me.
02/09/2010 at 21:53 Celso Riva says:
LOL that’s the best headline I’ve ever read for a news related to one of my games :D
p.s. there are also “asses” (and quite good) in the game!
02/09/2010 at 22:14 Cas says:
Never mind asses! I want to see front bottoms!
03/09/2010 at 11:23 phlebas says:
And in the game.
02/09/2010 at 22:20 Xercies says:
It turns out we did meet again. Twice!
02/09/2010 at 23:03 DrGonzo says:
For a minute I thought this was a Grange Hill game. Oh well…
02/09/2010 at 23:59 NeonBlackJack says:
I don’t know about you, but I can read minds with my bra.
Fred Wester, CEO of Paradox
03/09/2010 at 01:20 Sagan says:
The game is actually quite good. I’m playing the first one (Full Moon) and I like it so far. A shame that it’s so expensive.
03/09/2010 at 07:08 Celso Riva says:
Expensive!! well… just use the coupon BOIO000X9 to get 30% discount on both games ;)
03/09/2010 at 09:55 JuJuCam says:
@ Celso, If I were at all inclined to play your game, you would have a sale just for your willingness to engage with us here and your eagerness to serve us. The world needs more developers like you. Bravo!
03/09/2010 at 15:56 Sagan says:
Hey, thanks for that!
Unfortunately I’m kind of busy playing Fallout 3 right now, and I have told myself a while ago that I should stop buying games that are on deals that I don’t have the time to play.
03/09/2010 at 08:04 Birky says:
Goodness, it’s the gaming version of scoobie doo! (but with breasts – just to keep in theme with the comments thread)
03/09/2010 at 10:13 Celso Riva says:
Lol I have to admit I recognize a similarity between Brandon and Scoobie Doo! XD
30/12/2010 at 18:08 MartinNr5 says:
Can’t get this to run on Windows 7 but the other VB game Full Moon does work. Hmm…