So admit it, you're singing the theme music out loud to yourself

The wife woke me up this morning to give me this news, and it was worth the interruption of my slumber.  Two bits of news, in fact:

1. They’re remaking The Secret of Monkey Island
2. They’re creating NEW Monkey Island episodes

I can’t actually remember the last NEW adventure game I played, it was probably one of the “use random impractical solution 87″ Gabriel Knight series.  Never-the-less, adventure games were one of those genres that never seemed to make it past the early 90′s.  I think in the new millenium the only genre releases of note would be the new episodes of the brilliant Sam and Max series (which I’m yet to play, scolding reminder to self).

I’m happy to see that the genre hasn’t been forgotten, because for a long time it was the bastion of good writing in games.  Action games stuck to their guns and explosions, racing games to wheel-spin and big jumps, and adventure had the storylines and the jokes.  These days, of course, a game can’t (or sometimes really shouldn’t) leave the studio without having some epic nine-part storyline, take Cooking Mama 6: Death Throes of Time for example (coming this fall!).  But in the massive effort to cover every single base, a lot of games can actually miss the mark completely.

So it’s good to see that adventure hasn’t completely disappeared off the developer’s repetoire, because more often than not it’s the best genre to mix storyline, puzzles and humour.

What’s also nice to see is that the remake of The Secret of Monkey Island is stay true to it’s roots.  The updated version features handpainted backgrounds, full voice acting and a simplified menu/inventory system for those playing along on the consoles.  What sold it for me, however, is that with a push of a button you can revert the game back to it’s original state, in all it’s 8-bit pixelled glory.  It’s a nostagic touch, and a welcome one at that for those of us who grew up with the game.  You can see the trailer and promo video here.

So I’ll be buying the remake, because I know it’s a quality game and well worth playing through again.  As far as the new episodes go, well, those I might wait on the reviews for, but I’m certain they’re in good hands given that it’s under production by the original creators.

Maybe it’s my 90′s upbringing, but the mind boggles at technology sometimes.  What technology you ask? Is it the various advances in medical science?  The steady advance in robotics that will one day gain self-awareness and kill us all?

No, frankly I’m slightly amazed, outraged and impressed all at once by the fact that you can now play Quake 3 Arena in your browser.

Good Beta Best!

Quake Live brings for free what used to be the cutting edge of FPS, and with seemingly no real drain on your computers resources.  This was the game that used to be first choice of LAN events across the country in the new millenium.  Times were that your computer may actually struggle to run a game as resource heavy as Quake 3 (may you burn in hell, Pentium 2!), and to get a decent game going you better have been ready to use all 56k of your dial-up modem.

Well crack open a Jolt Cola, because now you can play it as a browser plug-in with hundreds of other players online. And even poor little old shaped me can get a decent connection.  It also supports friend lists and clans, so everyone can their dusty tags back out for an airing.

Which gets me to wondering if we’re at this level of technology now, what other great multiplayer games (that I probably still have mouldering away on CD-Rom) could now be played in browser? Unreal Tournament? BattleZone 2? Team Fortress Classic? Starsiege: Tribes? It would appear the options really are only limited by their respective copyright owners.

I’m also interested to find out if the eventual product will include a few of the classic Q3 mods.  It’s been quite a while since I engaged in a bit of Rocket Arena.

Anyway, those interested in a little nostalgia for no extra cost, come notch up a few humiliation kills with (or on, more likely) me.  Registration and installation times are minimal and there always seems to be an active game going on somewhere online.

GG everyone …