4 those who see(k) the art in games
FireFish
(219 comments, 9 posts)
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Posts by FireFish
Artsy Photo Duel Round 4: Farcry 2 VS Gothic 2
910 months ago
by FireFish
in Photography
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At last, the long awaited Artsy Photo Duel is baaack!
…drumrolls…. In the left corner we have an exquisite image from the heart of the central african territory taken by Void in Farcry 2; while in the right corner we have a nocturnal picture taken in the enchanting woods of Khorinis by Firefish in Gothic 2.
Let the voting begin (-5 to 5 scale)! Arstygamers, come and pick your fav!
And for those of you that have the courage: we’re waiting for your artsy screenshots to start a new duel! :D
Song of Da Day: The Fight – Prince of Persia
1Happy to propose the song of the day :D
This one’s from the Sands of Time – love how it’s so energetic, perfectly fit for battles and yet it has a clear oriental feeling that adds to the atmosphere of the game!
Black & White sailor song
9The last sketch reminded me of how you help these silly sailors build their ship in Black & While. The funny song got stuck to my brain ever since :D
Sam & Max artwork
61 year ago
by FireFish
in Visual Arts
Another cool Max and the cat artsy work – ain’t it great what passionate people can create? :D Here‘s the original!
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Dreamfall: The Longest Journey
61 year ago
by FireFish
in Atmosphere
Dreamfall is the sequel to a pretty classic 2D adventure game, The Longest Journey. It would be a good idea to play both since the stories relate, yet playing only the second can also be a very interesting experience. Its narrative and characters are what make this game great – while the gameplay might be a bit frustrating and sometimes slow. Definitely a good choice for those that enjoy long dialogues, a multitude of wonderful different environments and parallel stories that eventually intersect! (PS: unfortunately the trailer doesn’t really do the game justice)
Amanita Design
101 year ago
In the last years I’ve stumbled across a couple of indie games i found pretty original: Samorost and Machinarium (link to demos). They both have an original and funny story, great music and sounds and really interesting puzzles. So, I’ve finally decided to check their background and it turned out they belong to the same company: Amanita Design – an independent Czech video game developing company founded in 2003. These two games are their most popular and have an impressive number of awards.
I also recommend checking out their short animations and flash sites, resembling much of the feeling of the games. As a side note, Machinarium is also availabe for Linux and Mac OS X!
Abandonia
5
I love old games! And it’s not just because they make you relive that childhood enthusiasm but also because many of them have a great artistic value (some in the real sense of the word and some more as an inspiration for some modern games). I’m guessing everyone loves finding that old game they’ve been searching for who knows how long – so i’ll get to the point: there’s a great site that has an enormous database of such games.. probably anything you can think of: Abandonia. Most of the games here are abandonware = they don’t belong to anyone anymore so you can download them for free. Some more important names like Prince of Persia, Another World or MDK are still under copyright restrictions and for those you have a handy link towards the official sites.
There’s just one problem: most of them don’t -properly- work under recent operating systems (doh)! The solution to this is a very easy to install and to work with program: DOS Box. This is a great piece of software that simulates a tiny DOS environment where you’ll be able to run the games (or any other DOS program). Most sound/video issues will be solved by doing so! A 2 line tutorial: after installing and running the program this will add the games directory to the console:
mount C D:\path\to\your\games\dir
C:
This mounts a directory to the virtual partition ‘C’ and switches to it – where you’ll find your directory structure. You move around with the standard DOS commands. For more info just type “intro” or “help” and you’re good to go.
To start your interest I’ll give you my personal *needed to find* oldies:
| 1. Skyroads - a brilliant game in my opinion! Only one let down (which was very popular at the time): it can get pretty frustrating… Here’s a demo. |
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| 2. Volfied - gets really tough in the end, i never finished although i tried and i tried…! |
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| 3. Stone Age - an awesome puzzle game with special music! |
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| And last but not least: 4. Pushover - again a logic game. It might seems to be for kids but believe me it gets extremely hard in no time. |
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Have fun!
Where does The Path lead?
121 year ago
by FireFish
in Atmosphere
When I first played this game I had absolutely no idea what to expect and I found it rather confusing. Perhaps this is what the creators intended, but I think that certain guidelines could help avoid the feeling of disappointment or frustration one might get after exploring the game’s world for a couple of hours without any clear conclusions. Nevertheless I found the concept very original and, even though it was a bit too gloomy for my taste, I definitely enjoyed the few hours spent with it.
So, first of all, this is not a <<game>> in the real sense of the word: you are not there to fight enemies, get to the next level, solve hard puzzles, etc; it’s all about exploring a surrealist land, guided by some abstract thoughts and poems and the beautiful/creepy visual and sound effects. In short, it’s more like an interactive independent short film. It can be a delight for those who enjoy long walks in the woods, the slowness of old art movies and gothic poetry.
And last but not least, taken into consideration that it was awarded the Best Sound and Best Design an International Video Game Festival from Spain it’s definitely worth giving it a try!
Gabriel Knight 3 Music
7Gabriel Knight 3 was the first game whose soundtrack fascinated me perhaps even more than the gameplay itself. Especially the main theme, which is brilliant, original and full of emotion! The music goes hand in hand with the profound atmosphere and story making it one of those games that you’ll never forget you played and experienced. In fact this is the perfect pick for my fist post here: it’s the game that showed me – a long, long time ago – that there can be much more to games besides the entertainment value!
Another masterpiece from GK3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Na6PNdizkI; and a piano interpretation made by a fan: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBKiAIYEwh4. Enjoy!
PS: for those of you that played the game – here’s a short film shot in the real village Rennes le Chateau in the south of France http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jylqtzTFGv4 – just like in GK…!