A Long Walk Down Memory Lane With Grim Fandango

When I think back on the favorite games of my youth I have a tendency to do so with rose-colored glasses. Nothing can really compare to the retouching my own memory gives to the games I love. I became keenly aware of this fact when I replayed the remastered Halo with Steven. It was alarming to see that the remastered version was closer to what I remembered about how the game looked, than what it actually looked like when I first played it years ago.

The Games of My Childhood are Coming Back

The last two days have been very strange for me. Yesterday I learned that Double Fine will be making a remastered version of Full Throttle, my absolute favorite adventure game of all time and today I got the news that System Shock 3 is a real thing. I haven't played System Shock or System Shock 2 in a very long time, but I remember it as one of the first games to really unnerve and surprise me. These were two very influential games in my early days, so to have them return all of a sudden leaves me a bit flabbergasted.

I Just Discovered Hack 'n' Slash and I Love it

I've been working to learn programming for a while. It's a slow process and has been really frustrating at many points. Learning to program may be difficult but it is such a powerful creative medium I think it's something everyone should learn, at least to some extent. There are tons of resources out there, from books and instructional videos to online courses like Harvard's CS50 (which I highly recommend). It wasn't until I came across Hack 'n' Slash that I'd thought about looking for a game centered on programming.

Broken Age Act II: Harder Than Average Adventure

I grew up with adventure games. I was first introduced to the wondrous genre through a copy of Space Quest I found in my fifth grade classroom and it wasn't long before I was saving my allowance for games like Maniac Mansion, Day of the Tentacle, Monkey Island and (my personal favorite) Full Throttle. Tim Schafer's Broken Age is a call back to the golden days of LucasArts and SCUMM. Act II continues the enchanting story of Shay and Vella as they journey into unfamiliar territory and fight to understand their place in the world they think they know.

I'm going to say this before we get too deep. I cannot discuss this game without some spoilers (especially for Act I). If you plan on playing Broken Age soon, you probably don't need any more confirmation from me. If you're on the fence about it at all, know this; Broken Age is every bit a classic. From the colorful and imaginative art style to the the superb voice cast and story. If you're a long time fan like me or a newcomer to point and click adventure games you'll find plenty to enjoy. That said, reading further could dampen your experience. Spoilers lie ahead; you have been warned.

Broken Age: I Feel So at Home

Broken Age is a game I've had for a while but hadn't gotten around to playing until now. I don't have any excuse, really. I'm as ashamed as you all think I should be, I assure you. A Tim Schafer adventure game is a dream come true for me. He was, after all, the project head and writer of some of my favorite games of old (including Full Throttle, which is still my favorite SCUMM engine game ever). Kickstarted in 2012 and produced by Schafer's Double Fine, It was a great experience that I'm happy to have had the chance to share with those closest to me.