Purple Haze

«Farcry 3 Blood Dragon» cover by James White

Newly released «Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon» serves up VHS-era nostalgia by the bucket for those of us who remember the 80s as a vaguely purple neon haze.

«Farcry 3 Blood Dragon» is the first game I have seen fit to pre-order solely on account of the pure awesomeness of its cover art design.

This is a game which definitively doesn't take itself too seriously. It might be appropriate to call it a spoof on 80s action B-movies like «Eliminators», but based on the amount of readily apparent enthusiasm and care which has been channeled into the project, I am rather leaning towards tribute.

Ubisoft even convinced Michael Biehn, co-star of «Aliens» and «The Terminator» to voice the main character. Also, it has 16-Bit era pixel-art cut-scenes and fluorescent dinosaurs who shoot LASERS! What's not to like :)

Of special note is the soundtrack, composed by Australian duo Power Glove who has managed to create a truly inspired synth-based soundtrack of the kind you rarely find anymore.

The tracks generally have a thematic resemblance to compositions from legendary movie composer Vangelis. Particularly the main theme has a strong «Blade Runner» vibe to it. Other tracks like «Blood Dragon Theme (Reprise)» invoke the sonic imagery of Harold Faltermeyer with a slight dash of Jean Michel Jarre. Brilliant stuff.

Realism in gaming, a counterpoint

An interesting blogpost on GamaSutra, by former People Can Fly creative director: Adrian Chmielarz, argues that as audio, visuals and story-telling gets better, playability suffers if game mechanics are allowed to rely on current gameplay tropes. He basically argues that there is an uncanny valley effect with regards to gameplay, which becomes more and more prevalent, as more realistic looking games are being made for the next generation.

The problem, as he puts it, is that increasing levels of realism in presentation, makes it harder for the player to connect mentally when encountering unrealistic gameplay gambits in the game world, like health packs and bonus ammo hidden in ancient temples.

The Sega Dreamcast

Sega released its Dreamcast console in November 1998. Its lifespan in the market was relatively short, and it was Sega's last console before they pulled out of the home entertainment hardware industry. It did however have great games, and was in many ways ahead of its time. 

Upon release, things were looking great for the Dreamcast. Demand was so high that Sega had problems filling pre-orders both at the Japanese launch in 1998 and the US launch the year after. At one point, the Dreamcast even outsold the Nintendo 64, which was the second most popular console at the time. Sony's Playstation however, was the one to beat.

Final Fantasy XI, Part 3 - The magical world of Vana'diel

It all began with a stone, Or so the legend says. In ages past, a sentient jewel, enormous and beautiful banished the darkness. Its many-colored light filled the world with life and brought forth mighty Gods. Bathed in that light, the world entered an age of bliss. Until, after a time, the Gods fell into slumber. That world was called: Vana'diel.

When you start your adventuring career in «Final Fantasy XI», the lands pictured in the beautiful map at the head of this article will be your initial stomping grounds. The map, drawn by long time «Final Fantasy» conceptual designer Yoshitaka Amano, depicts the so called middle lands of Vana'diel, which consist of the continents of Quon and Mindartia

A Realm Reborn: Final Fantasy XIV

The first benchmark demo for Square Enix's reboot of «Final Fantasy XIV» was made available to the public yesterday. «Final Fantasy XIV» was originally released in 2010 to less than stellar reviews, and the reboot is due to start its beta testing phase in a few days. Is this second attempt going to be able to redeem the «Final Fantasy Online» name? It is still a little early to say, but based on the demo, I am cautiously optimistic.

The «Final Fantasy Online» games have traditionally had at least one of these benchmarks available as part of their promotional material ever since the early days of «Final Fantasy XI». In fact, it was a benchmark demo which eventually sold me on that particular game (have a look at the video at the bottom of this article to see the footage in question).

Compared to the benchmark that accompanied the abysmal original release of «Final Fantasy XIV», which basically was just a copy of the game's rather drab and boring intro sequence, this new one is a proverbial firework of locations, monsters, characters and special effects.