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Archives for September 2019

Our Review of The Eyes of Ara

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When it comes to point and click adventures, I personally prize them above their more advanced descendants. It is games like Myst and Riven where I poured a lot of hours doing nothing but just clicking on things to make sure I didn’t miss anything the last time. Once I heard about The Eyes of Ara, I just had to try it out.

What I found was something terrific, and very, very engaging. The basic premise of the game is pretty simple as you play some kind of repairman who is sent to a mysterious castle that is emitting a strange signal that is blocking all kinds of signals in the area. That sounds like some pretty underwhelming stakes, but honestly, it is a pretty great set-up for a grand place filled with puzzles.

If you have played other point and clicks, then you probably know the drill. It means that you go into rooms, find objects, use the objects to discover other rooms, rinse and repeat. Now, some of these games will allow you to only hold a few objects, if any at all.

One strange thing about The Eyes of Ara is that it is in sections. That is, you go through one area of the house, and then you figure out another area. You cannot take objects from one area of the house into another. This might be kind of a spoiler, but you will quickly find this out.

Like most games of this type, there are hidden objects in the game to find that are not necessary if you wish to progress in certain rooms of the castle. This might be a bit of a spoiler, the strangest thing is that eventually, you are required to find at least a few of these supposed hidden objects to complete the game. It’s kind of weird and somewhat refreshing. After all, I’m the type that likes to find all of those Easter Eggs hanging about in a game.

What makes The Eyes of Ara a winner of a game is its atmosphere. It is disturbing being in a castle on your own, but doesn’t rely on cheap jump-scares. The puzzles are also the perfect balance of being challenging and engaging at the same time. There is a backstory which is worth reading about, even though you probably don’t have to and some players just aren’t interested.

I’m going to give The Eyes of Ara five stars. I’ve been playing it for about two weeks and have enjoyed the hour or so each night. You can find out more about it here on the 100 Stones website.

Groundhog Day Sequel is happening with Like Father Like Son: Release date and interview with developer

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One of the things that I discovered at PAX West 2019 is a lot of awesome cosplayers, not to mention a VR game that is now available for PlayStation® VR, Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive known as Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son. Once I heard that this game has been made, I had all kinds of questions:

Why a Sequel to Groundhog Day?

I figured that you have at least heard of Groundhog Day, a Bill Murray film that came out a quarter-century ago that is about a man who is repeating the same day over and over. It is a film that was incredibly influential, not only for Murray’s career, but believe it or not, “Time Loop” is an official genre on Netflix. If you don’t believe me, check out the show Russian Doll.

Honestly, it is one of my favorite films and I’ll try to not gush on it too much. I think that this video from a YouTuber says it all:

Now, Groundhog Day is one of those films that would be ruined if it had a sequel, like Inception. The story of its main character, Phil Connors, had pretty much been told, and we can assume that he and Rita (Andie MacDowell) lived happily ever after now that the time loop had ceased.

Well, as it turns out, Phil has a son, also named Phil (junior), and now he is repeating the same day over and over. Granted, it is not a movie or TV series, but a VR game.

So what happens in Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son?

Phil Connors Jr. is a vlogger who had lived underneath the shadow of his father, who has become a celebrity in the small town of Phuxatawney. After all, Phil Sr. lived for what could have been ten thousand years in the same day, and had got to know everyone. Suddenly, Phil Jr. discovers that he is living the same day over again like his Dad, but it is the day before Groundhog Day, February 1st.

What is the gameplay of Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son?

I have to admit that when I first tried out the demo at PAX West 2019, I was more than disappointed. What I was hoping for was an exploration of Punxsutawney, along with a chance to kind of do what Phil and every other hero does in Time Loop films.

Instead, I was doing this funky thing where I was destroying coffee beans, seriously. Granted, I had some fun doing it, but it was not what I was thinking with a game based on Groundhog Day. Oh, there was also a game where I was spray painting.

As it turns out, the game is pretty much what you think. That is, you can do things in the world, and then it steps up. I had a chance to talk to Ethan Stearns, EVP of Content at MWM Immersive, one of the companies that made the game (besides Sony Pictures Virtual Reality and Tequila Works).

Ethan told me that the original Groundhog Day is a story that uses a lot of gaming dynamics. That is, you do something, and if that doesn’t work, you need to do it again. Most games involve dying and respawning, which Phil learns to do in Groundhog Day to a nauseating degree. However, the gameplay won’t be the same thing over and over, but like Phil, the player will learn new skills in order to progress.

Any returning cast members to Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son?

I’m pretty certain that Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell didn’t reprise their roles, but their characters are there. Another character is Ned Ryerson, and isn’t voiced by Stephen Tobolowsky, from what I can tell.

However, the player will encounter a lot of Easter eggs from the original film, and explore the entire town of Punxsutawney. The game got a lot of support from Danny Rubin, and there was some help from Telltale Games.

Sony/Columbia was partnered with MWM, and the project uses very much gaming mentality to work. The narrative could work really well with gaming. Had writers from Telltale Games to help out.

Is there any explanation for the time loop in Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son?

This was one question that I wanted an answer for. This is a spoiler, but there is not really an explanation for the time loop in Groundhog Day. That is, there is no attempt to give a cause, supernatural or otherwise. I asked Ethan if the game will have some kind of detailed explanation of the cause, but he wouldn’t let me know this.

Well, it sounds like it is a really interesting game, and it is available globally on PlayStation® VR, Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive.

Our Review of Oculus and Insomniac’s Stormland from PAX West 2019

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As I mentioned on our sister site of The Geek Church, we had a very awesome trip to PAX West 2019 last week. Whenever I go to a conference, it is always a challenge to use the time wisely and play the latest and greatest games on display. Fortunately, I think I had a chance to play the best, and something that is going to be a game changer for gaming: Stormland for the Oculus.

If you are not familiar with the Oculus, it is a VR headset that is owned by none other than social media giant Facebook. I am really not certain what the heck Mr. Zuckerberg wants to do with a VR headset for all of his Facebook Friends, but Stormland demonstrated how effective it is for gaming.

If you know anything about gaming conventions, then you know that real estate on them is costly, and so the bigger companies have the biggest booths. The booth for the Oculus was quite big, and it was needed for these rooms surrounded by Plexiglas. These chambers, about 20 x 20 feet, were completely bare except for the headset and whatever was needed to play this game.

The headset was put on my head, and the two controllers were put in my hands. With my ears and eyes covered, I was practically cut off from the outside world. I found myself in a new world, and it was an alien planet that reminded me of the lush Pandora of Avatar with a little less green and blue.

Now, I have really no idea of the backstory of this game, so I had no idea what the heck my player character was doing on this alien world. Fortunately, I had a guide. There was a humanoid robot who wanted me to follow her, and this was just so I could get basic moves of the game down.

I found out later that this robot was a person in the other room who was giving instructions to me in real-time. The first thing she told me was how to use a trigger to shoot, and that meant that I held my hand in front of me and targeted things as if I was pointing a real gun. I was even able to do a quick-draw move with other guns that I found along the way. Yes, I could pick up a lot of objects along the way.

Of course, what is any game without the power of jumping? In the case of Stormland, there is a jump, and then a double jump. It took me a while to get used to the world, and I will have to say that at the time of playing, there were some setbacks. For one thing, the controller that was able shift the camera did it kind of shakily. Normally, if I’m playing a game with camera controls, the camera moves smoothly. This time, a movement to the left and right was like suddenly turning my head twenty degrees.

There was also one move that I could never master. The game requires a lot of climbing, and you can climb anything, just like in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Putting my hands in front of me shows these robotic hands that are able to grip mountains and scale them by moving them back and forth as if I was actually climbing. Granted, I didn’t feel the gravity of the situation, but just climbing was causing to work up a serious sweat.

I wish that I was able to do this one move in climbing. What you have to do is haul yourself up, and then use this rocket booster to gain a whole lot of height. I tried this so many times, and I just couldn’t do it. It reminds me of certain moves that I do in Super Mario Odyssey that really took a long time to perfect. The worst part was how I kept unintentionally turning on the menu. I must have looked like a complete crazy man as I flailed my arms.

There was one thing that was completely awesome. On the planet where Stormland takes place, there are these fog-covered areas that my player can soar over. By soar, I mean jump and then I extend my hands to get such a boost equal to the Millennium Falcon going into hyperspace. I absolutely loved the rush of this, and when I had to stop, the affect was pretty jarring.

I did notice that there were a few times where someone had to tell me to take a few steps back. I even had this weird grid of a net that appeared in the game that would show up if I stepped outside the gaming zone.

I had this other problem where I had to pick up canisters and open them. It was a weird method of interaction, and I was able to do it.

The rest of my time was spent shooting robot bad guys and evading plants that wanted to kill you for some reason. Eventually, I was told to stop, and when the headset was taken off, I felt like I was transported into another world. It was like Neo when he was disconnected from the Matrix, or that episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called “The Inner Light” where Captain Picard had his mind transported into another person on another world and then back into his regular captain self.

In short, this could be my new addiction. One thing about Virtual Reality is that it seems to have highs and lows, but it has never really taken off. Part of it is how expensive it is to buy into it, as even the PlayStation VR costs a pretty penny, not even including the PlayStation system. Also, you need a house with some space to do this, and we just aren’t at Ready Player One levels as yet.

So, what was I doing on an alien planet? Why are there people shooting at me? Yeah, I still don’t know what the game is all about. I feel that it is about a robot soldier who discovers humanity in the midst of some type of war, maybe. Normally, I put the preview video first, but I wanted to speculate on what this game is really about. This is not going to be the last time I report on this, and I want to play it ASAP.