Sam & Max: Season 1 (PC) review
Topic: Video game reviews
Sam & Max: Season One (PC)

For this holiday of Winter-een-mas, I was going to write one review per day, but being so sick with the flu yesterday that I slept a full seventeen hours didn't help much. So I'm writing a review on six (admittedly short) games, all in one review!

    Sam & Max, for those who don't know (it is rather obscure), is a series based on a comic-book series, originally published in the '80s. It later spawned a video game (Sam & Max Hit the Road (PC)) and a cartoon series, although the series in general hit hard times with the new millenium.

    But in 2005, it came back as a popular webcomic, later being made by the author into a series of episodic video games. Everyone cheer for the circle of life!

    Sam & Max: Season One is a CD release of the first six episodes of this "new" series, and all six are based on the theme of hypnosis. You start out as a team of "freelance police". One is a dog named Sam, a six-foot-tall detective with a thirst for justice. Max is a "hyperkinetic" (no idea what that means, I think it has to do with being hyperactive) rabbit with no conscience and no morals.

    The episodes are all extremely fun, with lots of jokes wherever you look. It's a thinking game, which means that, like a true detective, you have to pay close attention to all of the minor details (even some of the recurring ones).

    The only drawback is that some of the tie-ins are a bit too obscure, and you have to be at least a stone's throw away from completely insane to solve some of the mysteries without a guide of some sort.

Graphics: Classic 3-D graphics with plenty of attention to detail. Slightly reminiscent of Nintendo.

Audio: Voice-acting for everything, which is awesome, especially some of the parts they purposefully leave out. They have some wierd-ass song in each of them, which is repeated in the credits. NOTE:: If you purchase the CD release, it includes a bonus CD with all 18 of the game's tracks, including the background music (which borderlines muzak at some points).

Gameplay: Nice-and-easy point-and-click controls. No messy keyboard shortcuts to mess you up - just click where you want to go (or who you want to shoot), and you're set.

Replay value: There are some really cool easter eggs and "alternate" ways to play it, and the story never gets old.

Overall score: 4/5. There are plenty of better games, but this is the kind of game that makes the phrase "instant classic" come to mind. All I know is that once Season 2 is made available, I'm definitely buying it.

The first of (what I hope to be many) the video game reviews!
Topic: Video game reviews

 As you can see, I'm putting this blog to its true use - reviewing video games. And since I've been playing PC more and more lately, I'll start with... a PC game!

Dungeon Siege

This game was the first done by the video game company Gas Powered Games. It was made in 2002, and it was one of the first PC games I ever truly tried.

It was a pretty low-end game, which made it perfect for my lame-ass computer. It was compelling, and my first real experience with RPG's (except for Pokémon, which hardly counts). I didn't actually get into it until a couple of years after I got it from a friend, but when I tried it, I was hooked.

There was hardly any story compared to most RPG's; it's been compared to Diablo in many ways, and having recently tried Diablo, I can safely say that that comparison is very fair.

It was more of an RTS than an RPG, but there was enough story so that you weren't starving for it. The 3D elements were a nice difference from Diablo, including a movable camera.

The story takes place in the Kingdom of Ehb, labelled as "the last safe place on the Plain of Tears", which had descended into chaos. In the game, you take control of a customizable farmer who must rise to become a hero and save Ehb.

Your character could be male or female, and after battling a couple of enemies you could choose to become a warrior (fighter), archer, nature (white) mage or combat (black) mage, or any combination thereof.

My first time through, I was a combat mage, and the only grievance I had was that you died too quickly on "normal" difficulty, unless you were a warrior. I would suggest going on easy until you gain more characters.

My verdict (because this is becoming way too long)? If you're not really into RPG's, then pick this one up, because it can get you into them. It's got enough action to satisfy any and all fighting game fans, with enough story to get you used to RPG's. But it steals a fair amount of its ideas from Diablo, if not the story then the gameplay. The graphics are pretty mediocre for the time, but if you're looking for a simple time-waster, then here it is. My rating: 3.7/5