Thoughts on Tomb Raider

I never played the original Tomb Raider games.  I wasn't a big fan of action 3D platformers, and there were enough other games to keep my attention besides "that one with the woman with the big chest."

I did play some of the later games by Crystal Dynamics, though.  Tomb Raider: Legend, Tomb Raider: Underworld, and the reboot Tomb Raider were all games I enjoyed, but there was something that bothered me about Lara Croft in particular.

In the end, she's always alone.

"Row, row, row your boat, gently down the- okay, now you go!
Oh.  Right."

Iron Helix

In my time playing video games, there have been a lot of games I've played that were...forgettable.  They weren't bad games.  Bad games are actually pretty memorable.  I've played the Nintendo Entertainment System Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game, and it was awful.  I played King of Kings: The Early Years and I'd easily rank it as one of the worst games I'd ever seen.

I've also played Bubsy, Aero The Acrobat, and the first few Bloody Roar games, and even though the last one was a tournament fighter where people would turn into giant animals partway through the fight (spoiler alert: whoever turned into the beast form first usually won), if the game actually somehow came to life and murdered someone, I wouldn't rely on my being able to pick it out of a line-up.

"Sorry, Detective, but that could be any game where a cat girl punches another girl transformed into a giant bunny."

Now, there are some pretty mediocre games I've played out there that I remember fondly.  Usually, though, they have a gimmick or plot twist or something unique in game play that stands out for me.  For instance, I have fond memories of both Oni and Bloodrayne, but they weren't exactly "the best games of the year."  Or even close.

Then there's Iron Helix, a game that probably very few people remember, but one I've held on to for years past my ability to play it on any PC I've owned, simply because I loved playing it so much.

Erik Designs A Video Game: Long Haul

So this week I watched the preview video for the most mind-boggling game I've ever seen:  Spintires.

A few notes:

That music is much, much too exciting for something like "getting trucks stuck in the mud and trying to get them out again."

That background is gorgeous.

It looks like it would be entertaining for about an hour (two if you and your friends are drunk) but then would get tedious.

So, could we make a real game out of that?  I think we could.  Here's my pitch for Long Haul.

Ask Erik: Episode Forty-One

Here at Ask Erik we've spent a lot of time reading novels and comic books, playing video games, and watching television and movies in order to amass a deep vault of pop culture knowledge.  While constantly trying to still gather new information, it only seems prudent to share some of what we learned to help solve some of the world's greatest questions.

Will the current talks with Iran ease tensions between us and that part of the world?  Will the Smithsonian's new efforts to scan all of their exhibits into 3D mean people will prefer a digital museum experience to seeing things live?  What the heck is Indian Pudding and why is today it's "national day?"

Once a week Erik tackles a question asked to him and tries to answer it in a method that handles the topic with the respect and attention it deserves.  Failing that, he'll at least try to make it funny so you don't regret reading it.

The Potential of Always Online Games

There's a tag series I use sometimes, things like "Erik Shouldn't Be Allowed To Design Video Games" to jokingly indicate that a lot of my ideas are probably pretty wacky or would never work.  I plan on similar tags for writing comics, making movies, and other such projects in the future, because seriously, you all deserve to know my pitch for Resurrection Man movie and video game tie-in (spoiler alert: you die a lot).

But with all the noise made about the Xbox One's complete reversal on their stance on used games and constant checking-in, I felt I could throw out my two cents on one of the ideas that I think has real merit: always online games.

Ask Erik: Episode Eighteen

Here at Ask Erik, we've spent a lot of time reading books and comics, watching movies, and browsing through the Internet in the hopes of finding the answers to life's biggest mysteries.  What impact does Kickstarter have on smaller independent groups trying to get noticed?  Have we lost touch with simpler times with the bombardment of new technology? Does anybody else remember that the monster truck Bigfoot once was part of a cartoon cast of video game characters?

Having instead amassed a vault of useless knowledge stored in his head, Erik instead tackles your questions and tries to find the answers you care about (or a reasonable facsimile).  Or, if you don't care, he'll at least try to make you laugh and forget you just wasted time you could spend doing anything else.

Looking Back: Phantasy Star 3

With so many great video games coming out these days, it's easy to set aside the games of the past and embrace the advances in technology, storytelling, and technique that are being applied to games.  However, every now and again I spot something in a game that I feel might've been done once before.  Perhaps it was done better, perhaps it was done worse, or perhaps it was just done in a way so original that I haven't seen it done since.

In this article, I'm going to look at one example: Phantasy Star 3.