New Games on The Great Games Experiment http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/css/logo.jpg en-us In 1996, Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh by Lorelei Shannon was released. Though still enormous in size coming on five separate CDs it was in no way as large as its predecessor.

Dropping the unique adventure game style interaction in favor of an interactive movie format, A Puzzle of Flesh was more expensive to produce and less popular with audiences tiring of video clip-driven games. Though some concluded that it was a substantial improvement over the original in several areas, others dismissed the game, criticizing it for its completely different atmosphere, lack of creativity, interactivity and excessive violence.

The plot of the second game in the series revolves around the character of Curtis Craig, a 30-year-old man working in a company managed by the enigmatic Paul Warner. Curtis' mysterious and traumatic past is a key element in the plot, as he pieces together his experience to form a picture of his soul, one whose discovery might lead to his demise. Harassed by quasi-delusions which seem all too real, Curtis aims to uncover the truth about his family, co-workers and most importantly, his own existence. As his delusions become more and more real and begin to have an enormous, terrible impact on his surroundings, Curtis must confront his fears or risk getting devoured by what lives within him.

A Puzzle of Flesh has a fairly standard interface, with the cursor shaped into the distinctive logo of WynTech

Source: Wikipedia entry

]]> 14 Apr 2007 12:48:40 Made during the height of the "interactive movie" boom in the computer game industry, Phantasmagoria is notable for being one of the first adventure games to use a human being as an on-screen avatar. Actress Victoria Morsell spent months in front of a bluescreen filming the hundreds of actions players could direct her character to perform. The game was released on seven CDs to accommodate the massive amount of video generated by this process. Today it still stands as a record of sorts for the largest number of media cuts used in a game, though several other games including an adventure game based on The X-Files television series have matched it in the sheer number of CDs used. However, if it were to use modern day video compression codecs while keeping the same resolution, the game could probably have shipped on as little as one or two discs. On the other hand, however, the seven discs were used to highlight the seven days, during which the story takes place - the game could easily fit about five discs, even without the advanced video compression. Also, it is worth mentioning that large portions of data were repeated on each CD, to avoid disk swapping when playing the game.

The game script was about 400 pages long, four times the size of a regular movie script, and an additional 100 pages of storyboards set the style for the over 800 scenes in the game. The game required four months of filming alone and over 200 persons were involved in the production, not counting the Gregorian choir of 135 persons that was used for parts of the music in the game.

Source: Wikipedia Article

]]> 14 Apr 2007 12:45:09 Alone in the Dark: The New Nightmare is the fourth installment of 1992 survival horror video game series Alone in the Dark created by Atari. The game was released on several platforms including PC, PlayStation, Game Boy Color, Sega Dreamcast and PlayStation 2.

Edward Carnby's best friend, Charles Fiske, has been found dead off Shadow Island, a mysterious island near the coast of Maine. Carnby's investigation quickly leads him to Fred Johnson, who informs him of Fiske's search for three ancient tablets with the ability to unlock an incredible and dangerous power. Johnson pleads with Carnby to take the place of Fiske and reopen the investigation in order to recover the tablets. Carnby accepts the mission making it his life's goal to avenge Fiske's death and find the tablets.

Carnby isn't alone on his quest. Aline Cedrac, an intelligent, determined young archaeologist joins Carnby on the mission to Shadow Island. This high-spirited adventurer has taken it upon herself to find the missing tablets, but is there another reason she was so determined to come to Shadow Island? Time will surely reveal the secrets and the intentions, so on October 30, 2001 they approach Shadow Island.

From their first steps on Shadow Island in the cold winter night, Carnby and Aline are immediately confronted by terrifying, evil creatures that are determined to halt their progress. Throughout the course of their investigations, every step they take, every corner they turn, they are met with suspense, intrigue and a sense of impending doom. Relying only on their instincts and limited resources, Carnby and Aline must destroy this sinister evil and uncover the truth.

The player takes the role of either Edward Carnby (a rugged paranormal investigator) or Aline Cedrac (a feisty scholarly type), and find themselves marooned on Shadow Island, a haunted place where the shadows are rumored to come alive. The player soon comes under attack from "Creatures of Darkness" that appear out of nowhere and seem to be living shadows. These "Creatures of Darkness" are eventually revealed to be reptilian, silicon-based life forms from the center of the Earth, an enormous world of dark caverns known as the "World of Darkness". Shadow Island apparently contains one of the many entrances to this underground world. True to their name, the game's enemies are averse to light (which apparently turns them into sand), and this figures heavily in gameplay. Players can use their flashlight to repel certain creatures, and killing them is accomplished with such light-producing ammunition as "magnesium bullets" and "phosphorus shells."

Light plays a significant role in this game. One of the game's main gimmicks is the use of a flashlight that players can use to light up the game's darkened pre-rendered screens, revealing hidden details and uncovering items.

]]> 11 Mar 2007 06:23:46 In this sequel to The 7th Guest, it has been nearly 70 years since maniacal toy and puzzle maker Henry Stauf murdered six guests at his Mansion. All of the horror seemed long past until ace tv report Robin Morales is sent on assignment to investigate the old Stauf Mansion, only to vanish without a trace.

You assume the role of Robin's boyfriend Carl Dennings who has just received a game book in the mail directing him to come to Stauf Mansion. With little but the mysterious book in hand, you set out to solve a new set of Stauf puzzles in the evil residence in your quest to rescue Robin and forever destroy the wicked Stauf legacy.


Additional Game Features:

• Treasure hunt with a similar puzzle-based game strategy of the former game, but much darker and mature atmosphere in comparison with the first game.
  


• Highly animated puzzles and lots of full motion video enhance the adventure.
  


• Graphically creepy Stauf Mansion with lots of detail revealing its decayed decor.
  


• Features the music of George "The Fat Man" Sanger and Team Fat.
  


• Rendered with the "Groovie" engine.
  

Developer: Trilobyte
Publisher: Virgin Interactive Entertainment
Released: 1995

System Requirements
486DX2/66, 8MB RAM, 4MB hard drive space, 2xCD-ROM, DOS 5.0+, Local bus video, soundcard, mouse.

Trivia! An R-rated version was planned, including sex and more graphical violence, and the script for this version was included in the official hint manual. The developers denied that this version was ever filmed, but rumors persist that an R-rated version exists.

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