Hello everyone. Rik has now written nearly a hundred reviews for this site while I lag some way behind. So in an effort to close the gap I blasted though a bit of Rise of the Triad.

Good evening.

One new review tonight – a welcome addition to our sports section in the form of FIFA Soccer Manager.

Well, I say welcome…as much as you can welcome something you’ve not played for 11 years because it really, really upset you.

These days I probably get to spend more time playing on the DS on the way to work during the week than trying out more recent releases on the PC.

Although my favourite game genres are probably sport and racing, I’ve come to realise that these areas aren’t where the DS really excels. So rather than buying watered-down versions of well-known console releases, I’ve tried to find games that work well on DS.

I’ve recently finished a couple of DS adventure games that I’ve really enjoyed. Their merits have been well-documented elsewhere, but for what it’s worth I’ll add my own endorsement.

Hotel Dusk: Room 215 sees a down-on-his-luck former cop check into a hotel with nothing more than the hope of flogging some office supplies in his mind. As the (extremely eventful) evening progresses, it turns out he’ll have to turn detective once again to unlock the mysteries of the hotel and its guests. Despite one or two gameplay flaws, the story is genuinely engrossing, and though the script isn’t perfect, I found myself almost missing my stop on more than one occasion to find out what happens next. One you won’t put down until you’ve finished it (and that’ll take a little while, too).

Once I was done with that one, I also had Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations to go at. It’s the third game of a trilogy that was originally released on the GameBoy Advance, but it works well on DS (which has since seen a couple of further titles in the series). I started with the third game because, well, it was the only one I could actually get hold of a copy of. As with Hotel Dusk, there are one or two gameplay annoyances, but there’s no arguing with the fact that there’s 15 or so hours of gameplay that’ll keep you engrossed until the very end. I’ve managed to get the first of the trilogy second-hand, and I’ll certainly be trying out the others as soon as I get the opportunity.

What’s striking about both games is that they have memorable characters that you can really warm to. While I like a nice gravelly-voiced action hero as much as the next gamer, after a while they largely become interchangeable. Hotel Dusk’s Kyle Hyde is the kind of reluctant protagonist you can get get onboard with: he’s got a certain skill for unpicking a mystery, but he’s also a flawed character with a drink problem and plenty of regrets to carry around with him. At the start of the game, he doesn’t want anything more than to just get through the night, but as things progress and unfold, he finds that some of the questions from his past can be answered if he gets involved with some of the mysteries involving his fellow guests.

Phoenix Wright is a slightly more light-hearted game, but it still has the capacity to involve you in a way that’s all too rare these days. Although there’s a faint sense of ridiculousness about the whole enterprise (not least in its interpretation of the legal system) the main characters are all pretty well rounded, and there are themes of loss, regret and redemption which permeate the story and make you care about what happens.

Oh, and if that doesn’t impress you, then how about the fact that, during the courtroom scenes you can alarm everyone on the train by shouting ‘OBJECTION!’ into the DS microphone? Don’t worry – you can also just hit the touch screen if you’re easily embarrassed.

Howdy.

While the real Winter Olympics are taking place, we’re glumly ignoring real-life athletic achievements in favour of attempting to replicate them by hammering a few buttons on our PC keyboard.

So here’s a review of Winter Challenge for you.

I’ve been meaning to post about this for a while, but events seem to have overtaken me somewhat. Anyway, as you’ll have noticed from Stoo’s recent newspost (or indeed from the site itself), the nice fellows over at Just Games Retro have decided to call it a day.

It’s always a shame when a site you enjoy and visit on a regular basis shuts down, particularly in this case as the quality and frequency of JGR’s updates not only meant a regular serving of retro goodness, but also a source of inspiration to try harder and do better with our own content.

Anyway, I won’t waffle on, except to say that JGR will certainly be missed. If by any chance you’re reading this and you haven’t had a chance to check out the site, go there now and do so before JMan pulls the plug…

Hi there. I’m trying to keep to a more regular update schedule this year, so here’s the rather great Deus Ex: Invisible War.

As mentioned in the review don’t worry about a flood of mid-2000s games – we’re just easing into 2004 with a review of a sequel to a classic. I’ll go play something from the early 90s next, honest.

Hello there.

One new review for you today, a whimsical head-scratcher by the name of Soldier of Fortune.

Stay tuned for more, soon.

Hi all. You may have already heard that fellow oldies-reviewing site Just Games Retro has ceased updating and will soon be closing its doors. We’ll be sorry to see them go, as we found their reviews to be both entertaining and informative.

Most of their content will be transferred to Mobygames, however the J Man has graciously donated us a review, so take a look at Star Trek: Captain’s Chair.

There’s been a countdown on the GOG homepage for a little while now promising a big and exciting announcement soon.

It transpires that they’ve signed a deal with Activision, which doesn’t immediately make me think of any game in particular that I’d like to see on GOG soon.

However, as part of the announcement, the first Gabriel Knight game, Sins of the Fathers, has been released. I didn’t know Activision had the rights to that series, to be honest.

Anyway, the disk version has been an abandonware staple for a while now, but we’re talking about the full talkie version here, which is something I’ve wanted to get my hands on for a while.

Disclaimer : Speculation regarding upcoming reviews on FFG is not linked to the likelihood of them appearing.

Hello there.

One new review for you today – I’ve taken a look at Uplink.

Pedants beware: I haven’t shortened the name, it’s only known as Uplink: Hacker Elite in the US. We don’t need any of your fancy subtitles over here, no sir.