Saturday, February 17, 2007

Hotel Dusk Room 215.

i first heard about this game by reading penny arcade. tycho's original comment on the game was as follows:
It's basically a videogame for people who like books. I'm trying to figure out if that's like a ballet for people who like masonry, but there's definitely something here.

now this, of course, piqued my interest immediately. what can i say? i am a nerd, yes. however, he also linked to this extremely slow-loading but gorgeous video of the japanese version of the game (simply called "Wish Room"). watching the video, you become aware that these hand-drawn sketches are in fact visions of in-game play. the interest became an obsession.

when the opportunity to acquire the game for $5 off at toys'r'us presented itself, i was, of course, overwhelmed. in a rare feat for me, i completed the game in what it tells me was 35 hours and change (about two weeks in calendar time). the amount of video games i have completed in the past 15 years or so of playing video games can be counted on one hand.

the game is, on the surface, a noir-esque point-and-click adventure game of the old style, similar to, for example, the Monkey Island franchise, except your main character is a depressed ex-cop named Kyle Hyde instead of a goofy pirate. however, Hotel Dusk has much more film/novel influence. the game's attention is almost entirely based on the narrative and character development with the puzzle-solving coming in almost as an afterthought. it is basically like playing your way through a mildly interactive novel illustrated with pencil-and-watercolor sketches. i will confess to, on occasion, consulting a walkthrough on occasion when a puzzle took an odd or, in one case, an entirely unexpected technique to solve.

one of the things about nintendo's DS handheld that makes it attractive is that if you have to drop the game now, you can just close the lid and it suspends itself in its current state. this also has the advantage of allowing you to shove the thing into your pocket or bag while not losing the state of your game. it was, therefore, not at all anticipated that the makers of Hotel Dusk would use this mechanism to solve puzzles. there are two puzzles in the game which can only be solved by closing and then opening the handheld. while most of the puzzles to follow the adventure genre standard technique of choosing the right item in your inventory and applying it correctly or combining it with the other item, Hotel Dusk really uses the DS hardware in some neat ways.

the other thing i really liked about the game was the way it forced you to play the character. more often than not, the story is progressed by conversations with the other characters than solving puzzles. but the conversation threads are in themselves puzzles, because when you come to a major plot point, the game gives you a choice of which way you want to direct the conversation. choose the wrong one, and you lose the game. as the story progresses, it becomes easier to choose the right conversation path. your main character is an ex-NYPD detective. so all you really have to do is be able to think like a cop *grin* you can tell he's used to getting people to talk; the writers of the game give you the classic open-ended, yet subtly hinted questions to ask your fellow guests at the hotel. it's your job to think like a cop and decide which one will get them to spill their guts.

while the end of the game ties up most of the plot points, the story doesn't really have a happy ending, which is another thing that sets Hotel Dusk apart. i really enjoyed it still. and it's just a beautiful game. i give it 4.5 carrots out of 5. i only wish it had been longer :) i'd also love to add my voice to tycho's expressed desire for a sequel. more Kyle Hyde would always be welcome.

Thursday, February 15, 2007

partial retraction.

ok, so it is kind of nice to be able to change fonts and colours without having to read o'reilly's Big Book of HTML or whatever.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

snow day.

got my snow day. well, more like ice day. it's been sleeting for over 12 hours now. something tells me he's not going to get any flowers this year.

however, unlike the last ice storm i was in, i have power this time, which means i can make hot cocoa and play zelda. whee!

[edit] actually, that's wrong. when the power went out that time, it was the middle of the afternoon, and i was playing dungeon keeper on my laptop so i didn't even notice the power switched over to the battery. 20 minutes later, someone finally found me and told me the power was out. i suppose i couldn't've made hot cocoa, though.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

change of plans.

this was going to be a review of Hotel Dusk, but instead google made me switch over to "new blogger."

I DO NOT WANT TO USE NEW BLOGGER. I DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOUR ADVERTISING REVENUE OR ANY OTHER BULLSHIT. LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE.

also, your new interface sucks. and i refuse to use tags. you offer me nothing of worth and a whole lot of aggravation.

assholes.

end rant.

Thursday, February 1, 2007

stupid brain.

i'm depressed again. argh.

one of the things i hate about depression is how relentlessly inward-focused it is. it makes you so stupid and selfish. all you can think about is yourself. i mean, really, suicide is probably one of the most selfish and arrogant acts there is. you have somehow convinced yourself that ending your pain is more important than the pain you'll cause everyone else by killing yourself. or you've convinced yourself that there's somehow something so utterly wrong with you that the world will actually be better off without you. that's an insane (pun intended) amount of arrogance, if you ask me.

that doesn't mean that i don't stand there with a bottle of percocets in my hand seriously considering taking every last one of them. it just means that when i manage to pull my stupid brain out of its depressed fog, i feel disgust at myself. which leads to more depression and so on.

stupid brain chemicals. behave for once :P