On today’s episode of Things That Might Have Happened And Could Have Been Cool But Didn’t Happen But The Idea’s Still Cool So That’s Cool, it’s the time retro adventure game folks Wadjet Eye might’ve made games based on DC Comics’ moody Vertigo line. It didn’t pan out, but they get as far as whipping up ↑ a nifty bit of artwork showing Hellblazer‘s John Constantine hanging out with The Sandman‘s Dream and Death.
That could have been cool but didn’t happen but the idea’s still cool so that’s cool, and Wadjet head honch Dave Gilbert says they plan to revisit the “dark urban fantasy” idea.
I think I exclaimed “Oh no!” about three times in the first two levels of Vertigo. The good kind of “Oh no!” Taking elements from a lot of other games, and a strong visual similarity with the wonderful 1000 Amps, Vertigo is a free puzzle platformer that’s genuinely clever. And hurts my brain. My poor, maligned brain.
I’m a simple man, driven by simple pleasures. Such as when playing a climbing simulator, deliberately placing one foot on the rock, and then with arms by my side, placing a second foot on the rock. And watching the character fall stupidly on his back. But then I’m a twit. Vertigo is actually a rather serious climbing game, very impressively recreating the necessary actions and thought that goes into scaling a vertical surface. Using ragdoll physics, you control each of the guy’s four limbs to find grips on a rockface, seeing how high you can get him. Which is more interesting than it sounds.
Before I serve newly baked word-cakes in The Flare Path tearoom, I like to leave them by an open window to cool for an hour or two. This week I left stories about the Microsoft Flight beta-tester recruitment drive, the Steel Armor: Blaze of War trailer, and the GTR3 teaser site on my usual sill, and when I came to collect them… THEY WERE GONE! I can only assume rascals took them, or possibly it was scallywags or rapscallions. Rapscallions have been getting increasingly bold of late. My neighbour reckons they’re becoming more of a menace than ne’er-do-wells, but he’s a big old racist so I tend to take everything he says with a pinch of salt. The point is: What am I going to witter on about this week? Read the rest of this entry »
Looking for the latest gen on brutal Peruvian insurgency games? You’re in the wrong place. My Shining Path column appears on a Tuesday. The Flare Path concerns itself with gentler, less Maoist matters. In two of the splendidly singular creations word-sketched beyond the jump, the only person you can murder is yourself, and in the other one it’s plastic tanks and army men that get it in the neck. Read the rest of this entry »
While I wish AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! every success, I can’t let the “there’s nothing like it” claim in the feature list go unchallenged. For the last two years Russian outfit Digital Dimension Development have been quietly peddling their own flying squirrel sim. BASE doesn’t have surreal skyscrapers, smashable panes or hand signalling, but it does have aerodynamic realism, a scary sense of altitude, and a demo that lets you hurl yourself off the top of Moscow’s loftiest landmark.
