Title: Dreamfall - The Longest Journey (Longest Journey II)
Genre: Adventure
Platform: X-Box
Price Paid: $39.99
Would Pay: $39.99
Complete: Yes

I've had as long a history with adventure games as I've had with RPG's. Scott Adams, Adventure, Zork and almost all of the Infocom games, a good chunk of the Space Quest, Kings Quest and Leisure Suit Larry's, all of the Monkey Islands and most of the other Lucas Arts games; I imported Discworld Noir . With the "adventure games are dying" schtick, I go and buy most of the ones when I find out about them, since they're few and far between.

That said, this is more of an "interactive mini-series" than a game. It's fine if that's what you're expecting, but can be a turn off for some. The traditional adventure game puzzles are few and far between. The computer hacking and unlocking that would be puzzles in other games were minigames here.

You play several different characters and this is used to good effect. You get to a climatic moment of the plot, and pow, you're now playing a different character, either simply to stretch out the anticipation, or possibly rescue the character that just got captured. It can get confusing. At one point, you actually play both sides of the same conversation.

This game certainly not the ideal game. Focus is more on conversations than on puzzle solving. Choices also seem to be a magician's choice, responses seem to be slightly adjusted for what you say but don't have any real impact on the story. Graphics for the environment are gorgeous, but the people models are just freaky looking. There are also very few people wandering around the environment. This leads to an annoying quest at one point. It was the classic "fed ex" quest, going back and forth trying to get an introduction to a certain person. As soon as it started, you knew where it was going to end if you did any exploring, but you still had to go through the motions.

The worst thing about this game is the @#$*&( ending. It would be bad enough in a season finale on a TV show, but it was more than five years between the first game and the second. The next game better come out a lot faster.



The Prodigals - The Morning After - Dreaming In Hells Kitchen

Oh God no, please let this be wrong.

Ben Affleck is the next Captain Kirk?

Boy, how did this happen? Nobody could've seen this one coming </sarcasm>

The company responsible for the "Free i-Pod" craze has been caught selling it's list to third parties, despite a promise that it didn't. And TrustE never found anything wrong with their practices.

The company that bought the list gets to remain in the DMA because they apologized.

Even if the next generation of DRM endangers your life or critical infrastructure systems, The RIAA doesn't want you to be able to remove it

So I picked up Dragon's Quest VIII on Friday and spent way too long playing it on Saturday. My other current game is Final Fantasy (note lack of any numbers). Two RPGs, two decades apart, with computing power order of magnitudes apart. There's certainly little common in appearance between the two, with Dragon Quest looking exactly like a Saturday morning cartoon. The game-play however, is the same with some tweaks.

Inspired by this post.


I hereby expressly tell the NSA,DOJ, and all other offices of the government publicly known and unknown to go to hell. Eavesdropping on any telephonic, Internet or other forms of communications I may have -- whether I initiate or am on the receiving end of the communication is expressly not permitted without a warrant. I hereby resolve to use encryption wherever possible for all communications, especially non-confidential ones.

If you agree with this, please post a copy in your blog or journal.

Looks like some some copy protections can cause hardware failure

And they threaten to sue anyone that exposes it Quelle surprise.

Wow, just wow. I was debating whether or not to continue my straight run through of the PoP series and take a side break to something else (like FFX), but now I'm glad I didn't. They managed to take all my complaints against PoP:WW and resolve them. The feel of the first game is back, but with the option of the combat from the second one. I'm a couple of hours in, already invested in the story, and have had a few cheer out loud moments, one of which with the new chariot race.

This is a far cry from my first impressions of the second game. Without any serious missteps and reasonable length, this has a damn good shot at getting at $49.95 rating.