Alone in the Dark (MS-DOS) - Part 2

Today on Super Adventures, I'm going to try to beat the original Alone in the Dark!

This is the second and final part of my two-part article, so you'll probably want to check out PART ONE first. I wrote all about all kinds of stuff, even mentioned Resident Evil a couple of times.

One thing I didn't talk about though, and it's fairly important, is that the game came out in late 1992... so this is its 30th anniversary! It's getting a remake soon to celebrate and from what I can tell it's the kind of reimagining where they take all the stuff from the original game and put it to one side so they can make up a bunch of other stuff instead. I feel like it'll probably have better combat though.

Okay this is the last part of my Alone in the Dark playthrough and I'm playing this with the intent to finally finish it, so beyond this point the SPOILERS will be extensive. With any luck. I mean I can't make any promises here, you can count the number of true survival horror games I've completed on one hand, with all the fingers severed, but maybe this will be the first!

South Park: The Stick of Truth (PC)

Developer:

Obsidian

|

Release Date:

2014

|

Systems:

Windows, PS3, Xbox 360

---

This week on Super Adventures I'm playing another game based on a cartoon series! It'd be fair to say that South Park: The Stick of Truth is a little better regarded than Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse though, as it's got over twice the score on metacritic.

In fact Stick of Truth gave Obsidian their highest metacritic score since Knights of the Old Republic II back in 2004, beating games like Fallout: New Vegas and Alpha Protocol. Which goes to show how broken metacritic is/how rubbish reviewers are, as Alpha Protocol's totally a better game than KotOR 2! It has an ending and everything.

I still can't believe that Obsidian of all developers were working on a 'South Park' RPG, though in retrospect I suppose I should be more surprised that they finished it, seeing as they have the worst luck with their licensed games. The original publisher for Stick of Truth went bankrupt a year before release, Aliens: Crucible and their 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves' prequel were both cancelled during development, and in a parallel universe they would've made a 'Wheel of Time' and a 'Star Trek' game as well. We're never going to get a proper single player 'Star Trek' RPG at this rate.

Though we did get a 'South Park' RPG and it's right in front of me, so I guess I should play it already.

(Click the screenshots to examine at their original resolution. It's not a great resolution, but it's bigger.)

Final Fantasy XII (PS2)

Today on Super Adventures I'm playing classic PlayStation 2 JRPG Final Fantasy XII, sometimes also referred to as Final Fantasy 12 by people who want to maximise the chances of their site showing up in search results.

I've been playing through the first few hours of all the main series Final Fantasy games in order this year, but I'm going to have to jump from 10 to 12 here, skipping 11 entirely, as it appears that Square accidentally gave the name to their multiplayer spinoff. They could've called it Final Fantasy Online, Final World of Fantasy, or Final Fantasy: MMO Gaiden, but nope they slapped the name Final Fantasy XI on it and waited for the fans to come to them as they always do, eager to get them all signed up for that monthly fee.

So no, I'm not playing that one.

Baldur's Gate (PC)

Today I'm going to have a quick look at classic BioWare title Baldur's Gate. Well, relatively quick; the game's an RPG so if I want a good idea of how it plays I'll probably be stuck playing it for days rather than hours.

There's a number of fantastic user developed mods for the game like Baldur's Gate Tutu and Baldur's Gate Trilogy that run the game content in a newer version of the Infinity Engine, while fixing bugs and tweaking the gameplay. Plus the game was recently given an official overhaul in the form of the Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, so I've got a few options here. I'm not playing any of them though. This is going to be original old school vanilla Baldur's Gate, straight off the DVD, with all the original quirks, bugs and annoyances present.

(I'm deeply sorry that these are crappy compressed jpeg images, but clicking on them will reveal crystal clear lossless screenshots, for those that want them.)

Dragon Age: Origins (PC)

Super Adventures at Christmas 2012 - Game 3:

Today I'm taking a look at Dragon Age: Origins, Bioware's spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate RPG series. Also known as 'the good one' after Dragon Age II did its best to slay the franchise when it was barely a hatchling.

Though to be honest, despite that game's obviously rushed development time, endlessly reused environments, and a story that falls apart way before the end, I actually kind of like DA2. Sure I often wondered why I was walking around the same warehouse slaying the same mages for the fifteenth time, when it was obvious that nothing I did mattered and that no one in the grimdark crapsack city I was trapped in was worth saving, but holy shit that game had nice menus. I could sit scrolling through my inventory and assigning skill points for hours.

Anyway like I said, this is supposed to be the good one, so I'm expecting a little more from it.

Brain Lord (SNES)

This time I'm taking a look at Brain Lord, which was requested a while back.

Judging by the name I'd say there's no way this isn't going to be a horizontal scrolling shoot 'em up. Or maybe one of those top view run and gun alien killing games. But then again it's got Enix on the title screen, who are famous for two things: RPGs, and more RPGs, so I'm not sure anymore.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (PC)

A super-sized look at the fourth game in the main Elder Scrolls series! No mods, no graphical enhancements. Just pure, straight out of the box Oblivion.

I have played this one before, but I never did finish it. If I remember right I mostly hid out in the Arena until I ran out of enemies to fight, then got bored with it.

(Click the pics to make them big.)

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (PC)

In Elder Scrolls: Arena my bow broke and I was murdered by skeletons. In Daggerfall I roamed the land for days on foot, never finding out how to start the main quest. In Battlespire I got stuck in a bloody Battlespire... but this game I've played before. So hopefully I'll at least remember how to get to the plot.

And I'll be playing it 100% UNMODDED! Not even a graphics mod, this is vanilla Morrowind in its purest form. Click the pics for a super huge version. Well, 1280x960... slightly huge.