PC Game Review: MDK

GAME: MDK
DEVELOPER: Shiny Entertainment
PUBLISHER: Interplay
RELEASED: 1997
AVAILABILITY: PS1, PC CD-ROM, GOG, Steam


Murder Death Kill. Mission: Deliver Kindness. Max, Doctor, Kurt. Mother's Day Kisses. It's never been clear what exactly MDK stands for, but what is clear is that MDK is probably one of the best shooters of the 90's, heck maybe even one of the best games of that decade. Coming out in the post-Doom and post-Quake era of gaming, MDK set out to do one thing; shake things up. So in today's review I'm taking a look at one of my all-time favourite games, Shiny Entertainment's 1997 masterpiece MDK.

Look out below!

Dr. Fluke Hawkins, the genious who many disregarded as a raving madman and exiled to a space station surrounding the Earth, was the first one to discover the energy beams coming towards our planet. Then one fateful day it happened. The stream riders, a species of aliens never before seen in our galaxy, invaded the planet with massive city-sized tanks that began leveling entire countries to the ground. A time of crisis indeed. But the doctor had an ace up his sleeve. His cybernetic dog assistant Max and his janitor Kurt Hectic, who he outfitted with a tight androgynous kevlar "coil" suit, complete with a built-in parachute and sniper helmet (with detachable machine gun). It is now Kurt's mission to deliver kindness to the invaders and destroy the minecrawlers before they reach the remaining cities on Earth.

MDK's story is directly tied to its gameplay, and doesn't have much of an impact on the overall game save for its core mechanics. Each stage begins with an airdiving sequence towards a minecrawler, in which you have to avoid a trackling laser and homing missiles, while gathering supplies that Dr. Fluke is dropping in after you. The trick here is just to take as little damage as possible before the stage begins.

GERONIMOOOOO!

After this initial airdiving sequence you find yourself at the minecrawler, where you will have to traverse multiple areas before reaching the minecrawler's commander, who serves as your boss fight for that minecrawler. There are 6 minecrawlers in total with a 7th level taking place at the Streamriders' home planet where you have to face down with the final boss, the Streamriders' feared leader, Günther Glut. While this means the game is somewhat short, each of the levels are divided into multiple arenas, each presenting a unique challenge and often connected via tunnels or roads that can provide fun minigames such as a snowboarding cruise. The game is probably one of the least repetitive I've played in terms of gameplay, given that the levels provide you with multiple types of challenges that not often can be solved by simply shooting everything (although this game IS a shooter so you will be doing a lot of it). One of the most groundbreaking aspects of the gameplay though is the sniper helmet you are equipped with. Taking your machine gun and attaching it to your helmet, the gun converts into a sniper rifle that can take several kinds of ammunition and can zoom in at extreme distances without losing clarity. MDK is probably the first shooter or 3D game of its kind that I know of that allows you to do this, and it's an incredibly impressive feat at the time. There is also an incredible attention to detail in the damage you can do to enemies. Shoot an enemy in the foot, and he will drag it around while bleeding, shoot an enemy in the chest and he will fall over and die, shoot an enemy in the head and it pops off, giving you an insta-kill. Sniping is a little clunky given it takes away a lot of mobility from you but it makes up for it in the sheer damage and accuracy you are given in return. One key element of the gameplay is that you're on a timer that counts down to when the minecrawler reaches the city you're saving, shown by the green area outside your health meter. When the timer reaches zero, the city is destroyed. This timer will go down quicker the higher your difficulty level is.

You didn't really need that leg, did you?

The amount of powerups on display is also impressive. And your suit must be implanted with a tracker of some sort because Dr. Fluke will constantly drop supplies for you wherever possible. The super chaingun will upgrade your machine gun with massively increased damage output, but has a limited ammo supply. Hand grenades can be used for a lot of purposes but are really useful for blowing up the numerous grunt factories you'll come across as well as tanks and tougher enemies. The world's smallest nuclear bomb is exactly what it is, except you'll use it for opening door locks. The world's most interesting bomb is also exactly what it is and will draw all enemies in an area towards it before exploding and killing all of them. The tornado is a more advanced bomb that functions similarly to a frag grenade, being a literal tornado that spreads exploding fragments upon detonation in a whirlwind like pattern. The thumper is a hammer-like contraption that causes a minor earthquake. The decoy is a crude puppet of Kurt that somehow fools the aliens who will gladly chase and fire at the decoy instead of you while it's active. There are other fun powerups as well like the Earthworm Jim powerup which launches cows at enemies, and there are also multiple types of sniper ammo to pick up such as sniper grenades which explode when hitting enemies, homing sniper bullets and homing sniper grenades, and mortar grenades, turning your sniper into a grenade launcher. You can also call in an air attack by Max, but this only works in open spaces. There is also numerous healing items to pick up, healing different amounts of health. A candy will heal 1% of health up to 100%, an apple will heal 10% up to 100%, a turkey will heal 50% up to 100% , the vial will bring your health to 100% if it is below it, and finally the monkey box (it will make sense when you see it) will boost you up to 150%. 

Snowboarding leather-clad heroes are the best heroes.

If I were to have any criticisms of the gameplay, then it would be that the game feels a bit too short. After the 7 levels the game offers, you're presented with a music video by French pop rock artist Billy Ze Kick, who does a cover version of "Non Non Rien N'a Changé" by Poppys set to probably one of the coolest music videos ever. I think a lot of the game concepts in MDK are presented but never fully explored further. Powerups such as the world's most interesting bomb only showing up probably 2 times over the course of the entire game, making it feel very underutilized and not fully realized, and the thumper powerup never really feels like it does anything specific for the game and feels kind of pointless. The game itself is very dense though and the amount of variety does make up for its length, I just wish that some parts of the game were further realized and that there was more to it. But of course if you finish a game and wish there was more of it, then that's definitely a good thing. The controls can also feel a bit clunky to use as even though you can map the buttons to a WASD layout, the left and right keys are still used to move you around during airdiving sequences, which can be a little awkward. Otherwise, the game controls really well and plays pretty much like a third person Doom most of the time, with your chaingun automatically aiming at any enemies in front of you.

How post modern. Who knew the aliens were such great architects?

Graphically MDK looks amazing for its time. It's sort of drenched in this really cool dark gothic Giger-esque cyberpunk style that is still extremely unique to this game. Few games of this era look as downright cool as MDK and it pulls off a lot of things that for the time were rather unique such as large open areas, reflective surfaces, a ton of unique textures and shaded polygons, and it has a style that is very much born of mid 90's 3D limitations with its sharp and pointy polygonal geometry. Most impressively it's used actual motion capture for Kurt himself, giving him very natural movement and animation. Kurt is actually a sprite during most of the gameplay save for the airdiving sequences and post-level tunnel sequences. The game was actually made mostly for software rendering, which makes it even more impressive as even in software mode the game looks absolutely stunning at times. It did require a FPU at the time though and was pretty much made for the then recent MMX processors. Using 3DFX Voodoo hardware acceleration doesn't really do much other than allowing the game to run smoother, and doesn't really give that much of a graphical improvement. Same with the Direct3D mode which actually is kind of broken on modern PC's due to lack of legacy support for older DirectX API's. I had to make a fan patch for Steam based on the GOG release which uses nGlide emulation, since the Steam release ships with the broken D3D executable of the game, which I find strange as using the software rendering exe would be more stable. The game has gorgeous backgrounds as well, giving each level a unique theme and feel to it. It's very easy to remember distinct areas and each minecrawler.

These reflective surfaces look much more impressive in actual gameplay. But even in screenshots it looks insanely cool, especially with that background.

Sound-wise the game isn't lacking either. Tommy Tallarico is providing a soundtrack worthy of a Tim Burton movie which does fit the strange, alien and gothic looking landscapes of the game perfectly. Another impressive feat is that instead of relying on CD redbook audio which would've meant the game required the game CD inserted at all times, it streams the music off the hard drive which is very unique for the time. Interestingly the PS1 version of the game does stream the music from redbook audio which gives it slightly higher quality than the PC version though the PS1 version is not as graphically impressive, using a lot of lower resolution textures.
I also love the sound design in the game, with aliens taunting you, whimpering as they quiver in fear when you're bombing them, and shouting at you when they attack. All in all, MDK sounds as good and unique as it looks.

Level design done right.

In conclusion, MDK is arguably one of the most solid 3D games of the 90's, with a distinct visual style that hasn't aged as badly as it may look at first. Despite its short playtime, it's an incredibly rich and diverse experience and if you have never played it, I highly recommend you give MDK a try.

SCORE
STORY: 8/10
GAMEPLAY: 8/10
GRAPHICS: 10/10
SOUND: 10/10

TOTAL SCORE: 9/10

PC Game Review: Messiah

GAME: Messiah
DEVELOPER: Shiny Entertainment
PUBLISHER: Interplay
RELEASED: 2000
AVAILABILITY: PC CD-ROM, GOG, Steam

Warning: There will be SPOILERS in this review.

As far as game developers go, I am kind of sad Shiny Entertainment aren't around anymore. Back when I was young, they made some of the most interesting, impressive and awe-inspiring PC games of all time. After getting their start with Earthworm Jim, the team developed the enormous cult classic MDK which released in 1997 to glowing reviews (and low sales figures). Their games always had a very quirky feel to them and often a dark sense of humor. Today I'm going to take a look at a game that to me embodies everything Shiny Entertainment represented back in those days, before they fell down into the black hole of developing nothing but movie tie-ins. Ladies, gentlemen and everything in between, I present to you: Messiah.

Bob is a working class angel, a cherub, who is given a pretty huge task by his father, the creator.  Earth has become a bit of a cesspool as of late and is in need of some cleaning, so he sends Bob down to deal with it. Of course, once you're there, a few issues present.
1. You're a tiny cherub with no means of defending himself.
2. Society seems to be at war with a race of cannibalistic mutants.
3. A dark figure named Father Prime is trying to open a portal to hell.
So things seem to be a bit more challenging than anticipated. But Bob is given a very useful ability. He can possess any living being and use them as a second skin. And that's where Messiah begins and its main gameplay element is introduced.

Messiah is an absolutely gorgeous game and soaked in a late 90's cyberpunk aesthetic. Some of the levels use very nice dynamic lighting.

Messiah is a game that can be rather deceiving. On the surface it might look like a third person shooter, much akin to Shiny's previous game MDK, but the reality is that Messiah is really a puzzle game at heart and approaching it in any other way will make it insanely hard to progress in the game. So the open nature of the game is in of itself deceiving as the puzzles really only have one solution most of the time and it is more than possible to absolutely ruin any progression if you do something wrong, so saving often and having multiple saves is a must in this game. The game will often put you in a hub of rooms where you will need to possess various types of humans to progress, and may have to kill some people or use stealth to achieve your goal. The game never holds your hand, never tells you the solution, it will drop hints in the environment but other than that, this game is truly more a test of your brain than your reflexes and I hesitate to call it an action game because while it has the elements of one, I spent most of my time in this game just trying to figure out how to proceed. In that sense I would more call it an adventure game in the guise of an action game. The game also rather insidiously messes with your expectations of what it might be. It puts you in control of an angel, a baby even who looks rather innocent but requires you to do a lot of horrible things during the game, creating a very strong contrast with its diaper-clad hero and its themes. During the latter part of the game you're even required to infiltrate a night club in a red light district, filled with drug addicts and prostitutes and strippers. The game is definitely not what I would call child friendly, but it does have a lot of things I think more mature gamers would enjoy.

Dance contest time!

Messiah is a game that surprisingly doesn't take itself too seriously. Sure, it creates a gritty dystopian future where people no longer have a sense of selves, but are just workers and cops, but at least it has fun with its setting, puts humor where it is needed and gives the different human types enough personality to stand out. My favourite moment is when Satan is revealed to be the main villain but his broadcast is broken when his imps, who are quite hard to control, start messing with his stuff. Moments like these feel very typical of Shiny's style and the mix of humor and a very dark and bleak setting feels like a continued exploration of similar themes from MDK (which I will get more into whenever I review it). 

The gameplay mostly revolves around the main possession mechanic that is pretty much introduced the moment the game begins. You will need to possess various humans with different jobs/roles to access new places, for instance only workers can operate machinery or only commanders can access high security areas. Different human types will also react differently to seeing you depossessed. Cops will shoot at Bob if he's not in disguise and will continue to do so if they see him possessing someone. Scientists, workers and other non-aggressive human types will leave him alone though and mostly just act with curiousity. The game puts a lot of attention to details like these which helps a lot in just making the world feel like it's real and developed. It's not exactly Deus Ex levels which I find a bit disappointing, I would certainly have loved if Messiah had some RPG elements where you could talk to people while possessing certain humans. I feel there's a lot of unexplored potential here, so this game could really benefit from a modern remake in my opinion.

News are boring as usual. Dat ass tho.

Despite the somewhat unexplored potential in the game, the game does feel pretty deep for a game of its time. Like I said it's not exactly Deus Ex levels but compared to Shiny's previous game MDK it's a huge step up and a rather different game in tone from that game. But what it does have in common with MDK is probably the enormous variety in gameplay elements. There are moments where you need to shoot everything in sight, moments where you need to be stealthy, and levels that are so straight forward you're pretty much just looking for the way forward. The game's early levels surprisingly proved the most difficult for me. The latter part of the game is actually fairly easy and straight forward and by then you will be fairly attuned to Bob's abilities and the various human types of the game and their roles in society. Story and hints are usually relayed to you through regular messages given to you when your head is ringing, first presumably from God and then later from Satan.

The game's environments consist almost entirely of urban landscapes, exploring various complexes and buildings set to the backdrop of a dystopian city, with some architecture (possibly intentionally) reminiscent of the buildings we saw in their earlier game MDK. The first part of the game largely explores a major human city where there's a bit of a war going on between the upper class of people and a race of mutated cannibalistic humanoids called Chots. This conflict dominates large parts of the early game but is never revisited once you've beaten Father Prime (which only happens in a cutscene, kinda sad they never developed a full boss fight there...) which leaves it feeling somewhat unresolved.

You haven't played a good game until you've possessed a rat to crawl over a sewage duct filled with human bones and intestines.

It quickly becomes obvious though that a lot of the mutants you meet in the game, ranging from Chots to Behemoths are really just results of Father Prime's experiments, so it makes sense that once you've beaten him, they become less of an issue. Later on it becomes a bit unclear whether Behemoths are considered enemies or allies of the cops in the game, given that you'd usually find them in highly secured areas, typically locked up and if you possess them and walk around, cops will usually just ignore you but they will still fire at you. I guess it could imply that they know something is wrong when a Behemoth is loose but still... it was a bit confusing.

The latter part of the game sends you into a place called Sex City where your goal is to infiltrate a night club called Club Kyd (very likely named after Jesper Kyd who made parts of the game's soundtrack). Somehow from there you make your way into a millitary installation and to the Earth's moon where Satan is waiting for you. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, probably cause it shouldn't, but the absurdity of this happening just kinda feels right in this future dystopian city you're in.

The final boss fight against Satan can be tricky until you figure out the correct strategy. But it's one of the best boss fights I've had in any game given it's, like most things in the game, really just one big puzzle.

Combat in Messiah is actually pretty straight forward, and at times required to progress in the game. The game will use an auto-targeting system where you aim in someone's general direction and a reticle will appear on them to signify you are locked in on them. The targeting also works likewise for enemies and if an enemy is locked in on you, you will see a similar reticle appear on your body to signify where you are being shot from. I noticed some issues getting a lock on enemies that were too far away in some parts, though this is rarely an issue due to the scarcity of the battles. The main challenge comes from how you manage your resources in a level and which of the humans you should get rid of and which you should keep and use given how the different groups will interact and how people will react to seeing you outside a body.

Guess I'm wanted.

The weapons in the game are pretty varied. You'll mostly see the shotgun which seems to be standard issue for most cops, but there's also machine pistols (typically carried by Commanders but also some heavy cops). There's also a flamethrower in there because... why not. One of the more notable weapons later in the game is the Maser, a plasma weapon distinctly designed to combat Behemoths who carry pretty bulky armor, but is practically useless against humans (though it does a good job knocking them down for a few secs). Just like people, the weapons are treated more like tools in this game and the Maser comes into play during a section where you're tasked with getting through a bunch of Behemoths. Using the Maser makes this a very easy task but attempting it without it, even by possessing one of the Behemoths, makes it a suicide mission.

The controls can take a bit of getting used to. I would recommend mapping the game to use a more appropriate WASD setup, just keep in mind that the game might feel a bit weird at first since moving the mouse also moves your character's direction. There is a freelook button but it's not possible to move while holding it, and it's not possible to move around in first person either (unless you're possessing a rat or crawling through a duct) which would've been neat. During platforming sections I noticed that Bob's flying mechanic takes some getting used to as I died a lot not being able to reach other platforms. Keep in mind that in order to fly you have to rapidly tap the jump button, not holding it down or tapping it slowly like I assumed.

Whatcha lookin' at?

Graphically the game looks absolutely amazing for its time. On modern system the legacy support is kind of terrible though and sometimes models will glitch out and warp a bit at certain angles, but the environments are absolutely gorgeous, and the game has a very distinct dystopian cyberpunk atmosphere that is so thick you can slice it. The costumes for the various models also makes it very clear what type of human they are. Cops are dressed in protective gear, radiation workers wear radiation suits, scientists have... scientist apparel, Chots are dressed in body suits with gas masks, workers wear overalls and wield welders and welding goggles and strippers, prostitutes and such are very obviously of that profession. The amount of variety in the game is surprising at times, especially in sex city where there are at least 2-3 unique prostitutes/dancers and you'll sometimes come across female cops and cops with riot shields. I can't really find much to complain about with the graphics, for the time this game was state of the art and as a I recall even shipped with some graphics card at the time.

In some areas, cleaner bots (the clawy thing in front) will swoop around and clean up dead bodies which seems like a great in-universe explanation for freeing up game memory.

The game also has amazing sound. The soundtrack, which was made by Tommy Tallarico Studios, Jesper Kyd and others, is mostly ambience and while in most games I am not a huge fan of this style, here it makes total sense as it builds up the atmosphere in the world you're in and since most of the game is spend just exploring, using your brain and figuring out how to work the world around you, a less intrusive soundtrack is actually welcome. There's also a lot of great voice acting, with Bob seemingly voiced by a toddler (who does a pretty good job) and all of the humans will say little things now and then, often somewhat humorously. During combat there's some heavy industrial metal playing, by the band Fear Factory, which fits those situations as it really gets your adrenaline going. There is an option for disabling Fear Factory's music during combat but I highly suggest leaving it on as it adds a lot of welcome diversity to the game's soundtrack. As a note, it seems the GOG version of the game has some Spanish speech on the included soundtrack which is at times really distracting and pops up seemingly at random. I tried googling this but found no other mention of it so either there is no fix for it or people just don't care. It's not a major issue, and I haven't tested the Steam release for it, but something to be aware of.

I feel... big.

All in all Messiah is a really quirky, really fun, and really REALLY challenging game due to how it constantly catches you off guard. But you'll not likely ever play anything like it again and despite its flaws, I highly recommend playing it at least once. Getting it running on modern systems can be a bit of a hassle but I think it's worth it. It offers a massive world to explore, absolutely unique gameplay both for its time and even today, and if you love other Shiny games like MDK, Sacrifice and Giants: Citizen Kabuto, then you owe it to yourself to play it.

SCORE
STORY: 8/10
GAMEPLAY: 7/10
GRAPHICS: 10/10
SOUND: 10/10

TOTAL SCORE: 8/10

Top 10 Anticipated Games of 2018

After E3 has run its course, and left us with a mixed bag of disappointments and incredible gaming news, I feel it's time to throw my proverbial hat into the ring and list the announced games that I feel the most hyped about this year. I am currently saving up for a new gaming PC and cannot wait to dig into these games soon with new specs to match the demands. So without further ado, let's dig in!

10. FALLOUT 76
 
Ever since the release of Fallout 3, me and my friends have thought to ourselves "you know, this would be a lot more fun if you could actually play together". And it seems Bethesda has thought the same thing as they have wrestled with the idea for a while and now come up with an answer to our collective prayers for a multiplayer Fallout game. Fallout 76 apparently will be a sort of MMORPG thing with a large focus on co-op and building settlements. So far it's looking really promising and I can't wait to explore West Virginia with my friends. I think the thing we really liked so far is that you really don't seem forced into a certain role. You can do crafting, and selling items like food seems to be a legit thing in the game. So it seems like a game where people can assume the roles they want and not everyone has to be warriors. Definitely excited to dig into that game this November.


9. ANTHEM
 
Anthem is a game I've actually been fairly hyped about ever since it was first announced. And I know a lot of people have said they're on the fence about that cause of Mass Effect Andromeda. Listen... Andromeda wasn't made by the main Bioware team. It was made by an offshoot team that changed its directors multiple times. This game is being made by a different team with a different director, there is no reason to assume it will be like Mass Effect Andromeda. I actually think Andromeda isn't that bad of a game but I'm planning a review so I won't get ahead of myself there.
Anyway, so far it seems really cool, I love the aesthetic of the Javelin suits and apparently you can customize your freelancer in everything from gender to looks and I absolutely love that. It's going to be a co-op game for up to 4 people with a large MMO-esque open world to explore outside the story instances. And fuck, it's a new IP from Bioware, a studio that for years now have pretty much only done two franchises: Mass Effect and Dragon Age. Just the fact they are doing something new and something still within the sci-fi realm is really cool to me.


8. SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER
Lara's next adventure is coming soon, and what gameplay we saw at E3 showed her sneaking around the jungle in a game where she has inadvertently caused armageddon and is rushing to stop it. I love this idea of her adventures actually having huge ramifications that she never considered and I look forward to playing the game.
Hopefully Lara will be more badass in this game. I'm still a bit tired of "wimpy Lara" from the last couple of games as I grew up with the oldschool Lara, but what I've seen so far looks promising. The devs clearly have written her to be a reluctant badass who will do what it takes to survive in a harsh situation but still holds on to her humanity somewhat. I would just still love for her to turn into a darker character like in the early games and I've been waiting for it to happen for a while now. And for crying out loud, add some dual-wielding pistols to the games at some point soon. Stop teasing us with shots of her holding two pistols and then doing nothing with it.


7. RAGE 2
 
As surprised as I am that RAGE actually got a sequel, I am even more surprised to see it being made by the studio that made the Mad Max game (actually, that's probably not that surprising). As has already been pointed out, the game doesn't look that original. It kind of looks like Mad Max, Doom and Borderlands had a big ol' threesome and this is the outcome. But in the words of Tim Willits: "That's awesome, isn't it?" It truly is.
Not a lot has been shown so far, but it seems they are expanding on the nanotrite abilities more and doing a combat style more similar to Doom 2016. And yeah, can't wait to play it. And hopefully there will be a Switch port for those long train rides where I need a Rage 2 fix.

6. WOLFENSTEIN: YOUNGBLOOD
A co-op Wolfenstein game set in the 80's with two female characters for the first time in the series' history? Sign me the fuck up! Sadly not a lot of gameplay has been shown so far, but it seems you are playing as BJ's daughters (explains why his wife's belly has been so huge in Wolfenstein II) fighting Nazis in an 80's alternate history Paris. I really love how they are just taking this alternate Nazi-fied history further and further and I can't wait to play through this with Kira.


5. BEYOND GOOD & EVIL 2
 
So yeah, Ubisoft yet again teased the prequel to one of their biggest cult games, and they have even announced it will have co-op. The most recent trailer showed something shocking though, that being Jade is apparently a villain in the game. This is most intriguing given she's the hero of the first game and this is allegedly a prequel. How does it all fit in? I can't wait to find out and I really hope it's going to do the first game justice. I still haven't finished the first game so might be time to do so very soon. Regardless, BG&E2 is looking better and better the more we get to see of it.

4. ION MAIDEN
 
As far as shooters go, we haven't seen a Build engine one in ages. So the folks at 3D Realms and Voidpoint figured they'd fix that by making a Build engine FPS prequel to the isometric shooter Bombshell that came out a few years back. What I have played so far is pretty fucking badass and truly feels like a proper 90's shooter up there with greatslike Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior. Apparently there's going to be a physical release with a USB floppy disk, which I am SO going to pre-order when it comes out. I highly recommend giving the early access preview campaign a go just to see what it's all about.

3. DOOM ETERNAL
 
So apparently id are already working on a full blown sequel to DOOM 2016 and just that simple fact is enough to have me giddy for hours. Whatever it's going to be, it's probably going to involve demons, super shotguns and lots of gibs. Hopefully we'll get more info soon cause fuck me this reveal had me so hyped!

2. RESIDENT EVIL 2 HD REMAKE
 
Fuck. Yeah. Resi 2 is without a doubt my favourite Resi game and hearing about it being remade just had me screaming with joy. And what we saw looked absolutely amazing. I absolutely can't wait to revisit Raccoon City in full HD glory when it comes out. Hopefully it will have better controls and camera than the original game too.

1. CYBERPUNK 2077
Everything about this game sounds like it was made for me. Cyberpunk is probably my favourite genre of any medium and this game seems to be absolutely steeped in the aesthetic of cyberpunk. I just love the universe they have created, and it seems like the kind of game I'm going to absolutely immerse myself in for probably years to come once it's out. We've been waiting a long time for it and apparently might have to wait a couple years more (aiming for a fitting 2020 release date) but it seems to be worth the wait.
It sounds amazing, especially with how the world will react to your choices and how they can impact the game world, and how you can create any character you want. And of course there's going to be some nudity and sexy stuff, which I am fine with.
Truth to be told I've never really been into CD Project Red's Witcher series, but this is definitely something that's entirely up my alley, to the point where I'm now using Cyberpunk 2077 wallpapers exclusively for my PC.

So yeah, that was my list. There are several other games I am also anticipating but these are the ones that I feel the most hyped about at the top of my head. Let me know what games you're excited for!

- Alyxx

PC Game Review: Pinchcliffe Grand Prix - The PC Game

GAME: Pinchcliffe Grand Prix (Flåklypa Grand Prix)
DEVELOPER: Capricornus Computer Game Productions AS
PUBLISHER: Caprino Video Games AS
RELEASED: 1999 (Original), 2003 (Gold Edition)
AVAILABILITY: PC (no longer sold or supported)

It's probably kind of difficult to bring up the subject of "The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix" to most non-Norwegians as the movie is kind of a Norwegian phenomenon and isn't that well known outside of our borders, but to most Norwegians, the movie is a national treasure on par with cheese slicers and lutefisk. Originally released in 1975, directed by the famous animator Ivo Caprino, and based on a popular series of comic strips, books and other published material by Kjell Aukrust, "The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix" takes place in the titular town of Pinchcliffe named after a mountain upon which our three main characters live. Theodore Rimspoke is a bicycle repairman and hobby inventor living with his friends Lambert, a shy and quiet porcupine suffering from crippling anxiety, and Sonny Duckworth, a magpie who is the polar opposite of Lambert, an extroverted daredevil who gets things done but also tends to get himself into trouble. One day they spot one of Theodore's old apprentices, Rudolph Gore-Slimey on TV boasting about his new invention that will revolutionize motorsports. Failing to mention that the invention actually came from Theodore, having stolen it from him while working at his garage. Sonny encourages Theodore to challenge Rudolph to a race with his own self built car, the Il Tempo Gigante, going head to head with Rudolph's Boomerang Rapido in a legendary race. With the help of an Arabian oil sheik funding his project, Theodore sets off to build his dream car and the rest is history. The movie is considered a landmark animated movie in Norway, featuring entirely stop motion animation, and at times using rear projection to attain really convincing effects. It was a technical marvel of a movie at the time and directors such as George Lucas paid close attention to it, using the race as inspiration for the pod race in Star Wars Episode 1 among other things (which, let's be fair, was the best part of that movie).  The movie has remained popular in Norway to this day and is annually broadcast on TV on December 23rd (the day before Norwegian Christmas eve). So around 1998, Ivo Caprino's son Mario took the responsobility of getting a team together to make a PC game based on the movie. And that's the game I will be looking at today.

As a warning, a lot of the screenshots are of the Norwegian edition of the game and while I have enabled English subtitles, a lot of text will be in Norwegian.

One of the game's scenes. Each scene starts with a brief cutscene before you can go wild with the mouse cursor.

It's hard to really put the Pinchcliffe game into any set genre but the easiest way to describe is that it's a point-and-click activity center game, though it still has a plot and goal to it so it's also not just an activity center. The main game consists of various scenes based on the movie where you can interact with certain things in the scene, and the main goal of the game is to gather parts for the Il Tempo Gigante race car so that you can build it yourself and race Rudolph in a racing game (more on that later). Stuff you click on will reveal different things based on what icon is displayed when you hover your mouse over it.
An encyclopaedia icon will reveal a factoid when you click on something, often related to what you are clicking on (clicking on a bowl of fruit for instance will reveal some facts about fruit). A lot of these are fun to read and add a bit of an edutainment aspect to the game since they're not really in your face and it's entirely optional to read them. However discovering all of the factoids in a scene will net you a reward of a car part so the game does reward reading up on stuff.
A marionette icon will play an animation, and often clicking multiple times on the same spot will actually play different animations each time, showing a rather impressive attention to detail and it makes the game a lot of fun to replay in case you've missed some animations you've never seen before and such.
A dice icon will launch one of the game's multiple minigames. Most of these are based on classic arcade games and are fun to pick up and play, but can get really difficult on higher difficulties (more on these later).
A checkboard icon will launch an activity. Activities are a little different from the minigames in that most of them don't really have set goals but can be more just simple timewasters such as jigsaw puzzles and playing chess or colouring pictures.
When you are done in a scene you can right click to bring up the navigation panel to either move to the next scene, go to the previous one, bring up the Help menu or head back to the main menu.

The apple harvest is one of the minigames in Pinchcliffe and can get pretty hectic on higher levels.

One thing I wanna mention that I find hilarious, is that the game proudly states its lack of violence on the box, and to me this feels really redundant. I mean, I don't think there's any Norwegian who doesn't know the movie and as much as I admire that the game makes it clear it's a family friendly affair, it's kind of like placing a "for girls" sticker on a Barbie game. For anyone who's seen the movie, it would be kind of out of place expecting the game to be something like a first person shooter. I mean, as interesting as it would be seeing Sonny grab a tommy gun and blast the hell out of Rudolph, the likelyhood of this happening is really microscopic since the movie doesn't really have any violence in it. I think the closest the game comes to any violence is the treatment Sonny receives when sneaking into the sheik's tent, but even that is so cartoony and slapsticky that it's not even worth mentioning.

As previously mentioned the minigames make up a big chunk of the gaming experience in Pinchcliffe as you will be spending a lot of time playing these to earn car parts for Il Tempo Gigante. Pretty much all of these minigames feel really arcady and the game also has leaderboards built in to keep track of high scores so competing with friends and family is a real thing in this game.

There's a mail sorting minigame where you have to sort letters from all over the world and place them into respective bags. It gets pretty hectic but throws enough variation into the mix to make it possible to develop a strategy and get really good at the game.

A variation on Snake is included where you guide a caterpillar around the side of a tree, munching on ants and mushrooms (just make sure you don't eat the poisonous ones) and growing bigger. Once the score limit has been reach you advance higher up the tree. There is a time limit though so make sure you get enough points in time.
The sock closet game is a variation on memory where you have to match pairs of socks. The apple harvest (screenshot above) is based on Oil Panic and you have to catch falling apples and deposit them in Lambert's basket so he can make some delicious apple pies with them. The more apple pies you make, the more apples come falling down (I guess the smell of that apple pie really makes them wanna grow faster).

There's a Simon Says esque game where Lambert has to mimic Solan's steps in a Hopscotch game, obviously inspired by a small adorable scene in the movie where Lambert (who really looks up to Sonny) is trying to mimic his Hopscotch skills and fails miserably.
The sound machine is another memory type game where instead of matching socks you match sounds by pressing buttons on the machine Sonny is using in the beginning of the movie. This used to annoy the crap out of our parents when I was a kid and of course, we all loved playing it. The amount of sounds and how similar they are to each other gets bigger and bigger the longer you play. Apparently if you get far enough you can complete some kind of invention that will shoot a piggy bank though I've never actually managed to break the piggy bank in this game.

The word game is a simple typing game where you type words that fall down the screen before they reach the bottom. Balloon Hunt is a game where Sonny gets a gyrocopter and flies around the town gathering balloons. It's a fun flying game that reminds me a little of Pilotwings or the training stage from Star Fox and uses some simple 3D graphics (which is kind of jarring as the rest of the game is in 2D). There's a game where you feed maggots to birds (watch out for the squirrel though, apparently feeding him maggots is not okay).
 Lambert's Maze is a Pacman style game where you travel around a maze gathering wooden sticks, berries, mushrooms and honey combs while avoiding bees (NO, NOT THE BEES)... ...(I am not sorry).

Theodore's Repair shop is a game where you repair bikes by scrapping bad parts and replacing them with new ones. Very simple but like the mail sorting game gets really intense on higher levels since you not only have to manage the bikes but also the new parts that are constantly delivered and have to be put on the shelves or the bikes.
Sonny also has a sidescrolling racing game where you control him as he goes down Pinchcliffe, gathering coins and avoiding hazards on the way. The higher the difficulty, the more hazards you will encounter but your score multiplier is also higher so it's a risk vs reward thing.
There's a Pipe Dreams kind of game where you connect oil pipes, a game where you collect butterflies (avoid the insects) and also a game where Emanuel Desperados, the sheik's pet monkey, challenges you to a game of cups.

Hmm... don't remember that from the movie :P

What really strikes me about these minigames is that while they're all not particurarily original they all feel inspired by the movie and its characters and story elements and thus all feel like they make sense. They're also really well made and provide plenty of challenge for adults as well as a really generous learning curve for younger players. In all of the games you earn medals based on your performance where a Platinum medal is the best possible result. You don't necessarily have to be great at the minigames to earn car parts though as even a silver medal will net you a reward and in most of the scenes there's a hidden Retometic Distributor (the invention that Rudolph stole) and finding these will net you an instant reward of a car part. This means that you can approach gathering car parts in a lot of different ways and the game offers plenty of different challenges so if you're not good at one thing, chances are high you'll still eventually gather all the car parts to complete the car.

Speaking of, it might be time to discuss the final game, the racing game. You don't really need all the parts for the car to play this as you only need level 1 of the car finished to be able to race (which doesn't make much sense but makes it easier for you to get into the racing game early on). However continuing to upgrade your car and finishing it makes it faster for each level of completion and thus raising your chances in the races. The racing game can be accessed from the main menu by clicking on the racing flag icon and from here you can access any tracks you've earned in the game and any additional cars you earn. The iconic "dirty tricks" button from the movie is here and with this mode turned on, the game will spawn powerups you can pick up to mess up the race for other players or give yourself an advantage. As far as racing games go, it's more akin to something like RC Pro AM or Death Rally as it is a top down racer instead of a 3D racer. It's still a fun little minigame to play, especially with friends and the AI is fairly competent.

The car builder is where you assemble the iconic car from the movie and level up your car.

The game is also full of various activites to do if you want a break from the main game or just want something to sink some time into. You don't really see these kind of activity center games anymore, mostly because a lot of these activities can probably be done with apps and other programs these days. But they still have a lot of charm to them and are worth dabbling into, if anything for just the variation they provide.

The character gallery provide some information on the various characters in the game and movie's universe, there's a game where you put flowers in a vase and can print these flowers (I'm not quite sure who this would appeal to, or what it's based on but... it's there), there's a music activity where you can compose pieces of music or just play existing pieces of music using a simple single-instrument keyboard. It's a little simple but it works nicely as a way to teach music to children (once again kind of adding that edutainment aspect to the game). There's also a drawing activity where you can draw your own things or colour existing drawings and print them (based on scenes and characters from the game). There's also a jigsaw puzzle, Mah-Jongg, Checkers, a puzzle game where you have to eliminate gems from Solina's gem box, a slide puzzle (I HATE this game cause I suck at slide puzzles), Chess (which actually has a really good AI that loves to fuck with you), a movie projector where you can actually watch unlockable clips from the movie as well as clips that at the point of this game's release had never been seen before, and an activity center where you can make simple presentations and birthday cards and other nice things. It feels like a little oudated concept nowadays for most of these things, but like I said, they have plenty of charm to them.

The Gold edition of the game also adds some new content to the game in the form of a quiz where you have to test how familiar you are with the game by matching sounds to scenes and facts to scenes and such, a number machine where you solve mathematic problems (again kind of an edutainment aspect) and a word machine where you have to solve anagrams. The most notable and, kind of gimmicky addition to the Gold edition is the addition of 3D content. The game comes with some fancy 3D glasses and these can be used to view special 3D scenes as well as new 3D pictures and 3D jigsaw puzzles (which I don't see the point of to be honest but it's a nice addition to have more puzzles to do).

The attention to detail in the scenes, character models and textures is amazing, each scene painstakingly recreating the environments from the movie.

Graphically this game is amazing and the production value shines through in everything. While not using any kind of real time 3D, the game uses mostly pre-rendered static scenes and animations. This means that they could put in a staggering amount of detail on their 3D models without requiring any kind of 3D acceleration to run the game. A good example is the fur on Lambert's body which for the time looks on par with something you'd see in a Pixar movie. The animation is done by hand which means that it at times doesn't look that great compared to newer movies and games done with CGI, but all in all it has held up surprisingly well. The game's pace is a bit slow and might be a bit boring to some kids who just wanna jump into some games, though you can skip all of the animations and cutscenes in the game and once you have discovered an activity or minigame in the scenes, you can access it from the main menu without even having to go into the main game which to me is a brilliant thing.

As you can probably tell from the screenshots the attention to detail in this game is definitely on par with what you'd see in the movie and it's still a gorgeous game to look at. The kind of retro mix of a typical Norwegian mountain town with all of its gorgeous nature mixed with the kind of DYI home made look of Theodore's inventions and technology sets the tone for the game's visuals and it's still a really charming style to look at. The main menu looks a bit like a dashboard from the car with a 9-volt battery in the bottom corner and lights and switches all over the place. It's just an aesthetic that has so much soul to it.

The game's most violent scene. BEWARE! Sonny getting turned into a football. :P

On the audio side I can only really speak for the Norwegian version of the game. It's amazing that they actually got the original voice cast to redo their lines for their roles, with the exception of cast members who had passed away before the game's release where they either used an impersonator (who does a really good job mind you) or archive voices from the movie. That being said I am not 100% happy with the cast's new deliveries. You can definitely tell that they're much older and lacking a lot of the energy they had while dubbing the original movie. The most jarring example being Sonny who just kinda lacks the energy his character is supposed to have. The new music added to the game is also a bit bland and doesn't really feel like it matches the style of the original soundtrack (lots of generic orchestral style music that feels a bit out of place). Some of the rearrangements work though, but feel a bit lacking.

One last thing I also wanna discuss is the game's copy protection. This game has never been re-released on any kind of digital storefront like Steam or GOG, and the ONLY way to play it is either by pirating it or somehow getting your hands on a physical copy. The game ships with the CD-Cops and DVD-Cops copy protection which physically scans the disc when the game is inserted and if the disc is wrong or not inserted, the game will not launch. It matches the disc to a unique serial number printed on the game's manual, and without this serial number you're screwed. This copy protection is also notoriously difficult to crack. And I have numerous issues with this kind of copy protection being used on a game.

For one, it means that if you lose the game disc or something happens to it, you're screwed. You can no longer play the game you paid for. It also means that you cannot make backup copies of the game since they most likely won't work. It feels like a really hostile way to treat your consumer, and I honestly feel like the game treats me like a potential criminal. On one hand, this kind of makes sense given the huge personal investment the Caprino family put into this game, and this is a really efficient way of ensuring profit. But to me it's inexcusable that they to this day haven't released this game digitally. Sure, there was a DS remake released in 2010 but this game is very different from the original PC game in a lot of ways, and there are iOS versions of some of the minigames from the game but only 4 of them. As of today, the game is no longer being sold or supported at their website and thus obtaining the game means you have to buy it used and prices are NOT dropping for this game as its rarity increases and it remains highly sought after due to its cult status in Norway.

Despite this, the game remains one of the biggest success in Norway and has sold over 500,000 copies in total (which on a Norwegian scale is a massive success). It received rave reviews from every publication on release, though despite this, Caprino never made any more games based on their movie IP's and instead focused on continuing support for the game up until 2010. The game will work fine on Windows 7 but will not work on Windows 8 or 10. It also requires that you run the game in 16bit colour mode so it sadly has a lot of compatability issues with modern OS's. So if you do decide to track down this game, just be aware of this.

Nothing about this game is dang'rous :P

All in all, Pinchcliffe Grand Prix the PC Game is an amazing experience and remains incredibly faithful to the movie. It's one of the rare instances where the game was developed with the same level of care and attention to detail as the movie, by people who worked on the movie itself. And it's sad to see the game no longer being sold or receiving support because in my opinion, the game remains as much of a national treasure as the movie is and I really hope it will be re-released digitally for modern OS's at some point but it seems Caprino has no plans for this when I asked them about it. Oh well, with a 3D remake of the game on the horizon coming to Steam and Switch, it at least seems we haven't seen the last of our pals at Pinchcliffe...

STORY: 9/10
GAMEPLAY: 8/10
GRAPHICS: 10/10
SOUND: 8/10

TOTAL SCORE: 9/10

A Call of Duty Retrospective

So with the releases of Call of Duty WWII and now the announcement of Black Ops 4, I have reached the sad conclusion that I will not be buying either of these games, after getting each annual Call of Duty game for about 5-6 years now. And to properly explain why I have decided to not get them, I think it's time I gave a proper retrospective look on my relationship with the Call of Duty franchise. It will be less of a review of these games and more just a look back at the franchise and the memories I have with it. Those of you who hasn't should probably check out my reviews of the older games on this blog to get some perspective but here we go.

For about 5-6 years now I've been borderline obsessed with Call of Duty. It's been not only my go-to multiplayer game but also surprisingly games that I would buy for the single player campaigns. And while my interest in the zombie modes have never been that great I have dabbled into them too.

My first experience with Call of Duty was buying Modern Warfare 3 in 2011. I had recently built a new gaming PC so in many ways 2011 was the first year that I really got into current gen gaming as my previous rig up until that point just couldn't handle modern games beyond Half-Life 2 (which I had to run at 640x480). The jump in resolution, quality and so forth was extreme for me and it really felt like I was jumping a generation ahead. This PC that I built, which is the same PC I'm using today and will soon retire from gaming as I am planning on building yet another PC, was built to last at least 5 years into the future so in a way, this PC has been the PC I've enjoyed the entire Call of Duty series on.

I had never really been into Call of Duty as my interest in WW2 shooters and generally more realistic shooters was never that great. While others were playing multiplayer games like Counter Strike and Call of Duty I was kind of on the sideline of it all as I was never really that into multiplayer as most of the places I lived at never had stable internet or I was not allowed to use it for multiplayer gaming. So MW3 was really my first venture into online multiplayer. And most shooters I had played up until that point were mostly sci-fi shooters like Quake 4, Doom 3 and Half-Life 2, shooters that I played more for the single player campaigns than anything else. At heart I remain a single player gamer but this all changed with MW3.

Aside from the campaign, which I really loved, I found myself addicted to the multiplayer part of the game. Around this time my boyfriend had also gotten Steam so he could chat with me online and one of the first memories I have of chatting with my boyfriend on Steam was doing so while playing Modern Warfare 3. This game got a lot of bad criticism from gamers who had been long time fans of the series, especially seeing it as a clone of MW2 and I think this was just the point where the series was being criticized for essentially releasing the same game over and over. Ironically this was the point I got into the series so my perspective was entirely different from most fans of the series. I had never played the first 3 games, nor had I played much of MW1 and MW2 and thus I didn't have the same bias and I really enjoyed MW3 for what it was. It was and still is a rock solid shooter and I felt really enamored by the slightly futuristic tech in the game. Of course being a sci-fi geek I was over the moon when Black Ops 2 was unveiled in 2012.

Black Ops 2 was the point where my love for the series grew bigger than before. I was actually really craving a Call of Duty that was more futuristic so when Black Ops 2 came it felt like a game more tailored to my taste. It also had actual colour as opposed to the drab grey and brown tones of Modern Warfare 3. And the multiplayer was probably one of the best in the series, introducing the new point build system which introduced even more flexibility in class creation. What had really drawn me into the multiplayer was the custom classes and the freedom that came with that. MW3 and BO2 were really made to suit YOUR playstyle and whether you wanted to play defensively, offensively or any other combination, chances were high that as you leveled up and got more gear you could really find a combination that worked really well for you. I absolutely adored this and playing around with different builds became one of my favourite things to do in these games.

Then Call of Duty Ghosts came and while I was a bit disappointed it didn't entirely continue in the futuristic direction Black Ops 2 had taken it was still an amazing experience. It brought a really engaging single player campaign and mixed it with the first time you could actually play as female soldiers. Once again it felt like the developers had read my mind and knew what I wanted from the series. While it wasn't perfect and I had some issues with it, Ghosts was still a great experience but then they revealed Advanced Warfare.

It was 2014. I had just moved down to a new city and moved into a new apartment. I wasn't in a particurarily good place mentally, struggling with a lot of anxiety and it didn't help I was starving myself to lose weight. But it didn't really matter cause when Advanced Warfare came out I was beyond excited. It had jump jets, lasers, a futuristic setting, everything was made for exactly what I loved to see. Innovation, and most of all, just sheer fun! Advanced Warfare remains my favourite CoD to date as I had immense fun with it, so it's a bit sad that nobody really plays it anymore and it received very lackluster reception from a lot of people. I didn't care, I enjoyed every second of it and I once again felt that same excitement I had when playing Modern Warfare 3 for the first time. It felt new, refreshing and unlike anything that was on the market with the possible exception of Titanfall. And I loved Titanfall so seeing the Call of Duty series take some notes from it was not bad in my book. It still felt like Call of Duty to me and even better than the older games. There was no way I could go back to playing Black Ops 2 or Ghosts at this point. This game blew everything out of the water. And the campaign had a ton of really great moments and setpieces, with everything from sneaking into places to mountain climbing and even piloting a jet. It felt just like a CoD campaign should, like an interactive high budget action movie and with the new amazing technology behind the game providing life-like facial capture and motion, it was even more into that area than ever before.

2015 rolled around and Black Ops 3 came. While not impressing me as much as Advanced Warfare, it was still immensely fun playing the campaign co-op with friends, and the multiplayer is still something I enjoy today as the game still has a healthy amount of people playing it and it's really fun to pick up once in a while especially seeing as the game continues being supported by Activision with new modes like the newly introduced Prop Hunt mode being added 3 years after the game's release. It once again continued the futuristic direction of the series, which while a lot of people disliked, I was all for and it felt just slightly different from Advanced Warfare in some ways so I still loved it enough on its own. And apparently despite what people felt about the game's direction, a lot of people are still playing it.

2016 would see the release of the final game of the series that would follow in this style, Infinite Warfare. For some reason this game was almost universally hated when it came out and I failed to see why. The campaign was really strong and it was actually really refreshing seeing a Call of Duty set in outer space. In a lot of ways it didn't even feel like a Call of Duty game anymore and felt more like something from Mass Effect, especially in how you approached missions as you had side missions and story missions and could choose which to accomplish. The multiplayer also wasn't amazing or anything but it got the job done and was a lot of fun. Again, I still don't know why people were so negative towards it. People kept screaming about wanting games like Modern Warfare back and wanting the series to go back to its roots. Yeah, this was the SAME fanbase who just a few years back had been screaming for the series to innovate and when it actually did they just wanted it to go back to how it was? To this day I absolutely fail to see what's so wrong about the innovations they did cause they ultimately made the franchise way more enjoyable and more fun. Call of Duty has never been about realism, it's always been about arcady shooting, about high budget experiences and more seeing where warfare could go and what it could become in the future rather than focusing on realistic scenarios.

But people had their voices heard and 2017's WW2 certainly proved that. It stripped the series of its futuristic direction and went back to a WW2 setting with one of the most bland and uninteresting trailers I've ever seen. Nothing about it felt interesting or exciting and it even looked really grey and drab and for that reason I just skipped on it. It wasn't MY Call of Duty and it seems... neither is Black Ops 4. Yea, surprisingly they are going back to a "boots on the ground" gameplay which to me is flabbergasting. The devs of the series have prided themselves on the innovations they've done and how much fun they have made the games and now they're just stripping away those elements. And yeah, call me negative but I don't see how a freakin' Battle Royale mode can replace a single player campaign. I mean, I get it's not meant to but seeing as they scrapped a single player campaign in favour of Zombie and Battle Royale modes just disappoints me on so many levels.

At this point I'm just done with the series and it feels really sad and almost kind of melancholic for me. This is a series that have delivered annual releases that have excited me, inspired me, captivated me and kept me addicted to the series since 2011. And now I'm just not feeling that excitement anymore. I get that things change and sometimes these changes aren't always for the better. It seems Call of Duty is no longer made for me and so I guess it is my time to sign out for good. It's really sad cause for years now Call of Duty has always been this annual thing I've been excited for, always safe bets for me cause none of them disappointed me. I am happy for those who wanted these games and wanted these changes but man... I just can't share your joy. And with a new PC coming, it's also time to retire my old gaming beast. Times are changing indeed...

Alyxx out.