Above the Sea and Fog But Still Perpetually Obscured.

Everytime I listen to the Gladiator soundtrack, in particular the track entitled “Barbarian Horde”, I get memories of a game I used to play years and years ago.  I never could remember what it was called but today I did.  Outpost!

I remember playing it back in the mid-90s on what I referred to as the ‘Black Mac’, a Power Mac 5500 ‘Director’s Edition’. Anyway, ‘Outpost’ was developed and published by Sierra (what a wonderful studio they were) and was released for Mac and Windows 3.1.  Essentially, it was a hard sci-fi version of Simcity with dire consequences and a rather grim beginning.  Basically, the premise for the game is that a big asteroid is heading for Earth, they try and destroy it but they just split it in two, and as such the two halves will wipe out pretty much all life on Earth (pleasant!).  The player’s task is to build a colony on a nearby world that can inhabit man and prevent mankind’s total extinction.  One hell of a task.

This game was fun and rather punishing. Although I was roughly 9 when I was playing it, I was pretty decent at strategy games, so I wasn’t too horrible at it, but I did fail at it quite a bit.  Until reading the Wiki article earlier, I had no idea about some of the bugs that existed but they do explain an awful lot.

• Outpost can sometimes end abruptly, as players who choose the wrong star system in the beginning can find him/herself in a star system with no habitable planets.

• Sometimes, players will find the colonists on the planet dying en masse unexpectedly, thus causing the game to end when everyone has died. The colonists’ death rate during this occurrence is one of exponential growth, following the equation 2^n, where n is the number of turns passed since the widespread death bug began.

Ohhhh, my two main problems with the game, especially the second one. Ah well, it provided me with countless hours of enjoyment.
But as to why “Barbarian Horde” reminded me of ‘Outpost’, some of the music in ‘Outpost’ is identical to parts in “Barbarian Horde”. Yep, that simple!

Ok quick review as I’ve just finished it.

Pros:

• Amazing firefights.
• Sound effects are stunning, especially explosions.
• Excellent story.
• Cutscenes are occasionally corny, especially near the end.
• Chopper scene is breathtakingly awesome.
• Excellent graphics.

Cons:

• Cutscenes are occasionally corny, especially near the end.
• Really repetitive enemies.
• Story lies flat and then builds to climax suddenly and ends.
• Strange graphic glitches.
• Driving is a bit silly.

I thought overall it was quite an excellent game, just like the first one, it just needed a bit more story and a couple of other little fixes.  I would talk about multiplayer but I didn’t play any.

Score: 7.5 / 10

Bioshock 2 was released today and so this morning I picked up my collector’s edition. I must say that the CE was totally worth the extra money if just for the vinyl and 164 page art-book. But I’m not here to prattle on, again, about awesome extras.

After only playing for roughly an hour after the tedious install process, I am mightily impressed. Even with my ridiculously high expectations. There have been a few things that have annoyed me but they barely impact on my experience…so far.

The main thing this time around is playing as a Big Daddy. You know, those things that were a pain to kill in the first Bioshock. Makes for a very different playing mechanic and of course, a very different story.

As I’ve barely played it, I’ll not write much, just my immediate thoughts.

Opening Cutscene: Wow, what a way to pull you in. Really, rather moving a disturbing.
Dual-wielding: Having both plasmids and weapons at the same time makes it a much more brutal experience. Currently going through the shock-n-shoot routine.
Distance hacking: I do miss the old pipe system but where they’ve taken the hacking makes it a bit more challenging. Basically, its pressing a button at the right time but the game doesn’t pause. Try hacking a security camera while having multiple Splicers attacking. Makes it rather challenging.
Story: Well, so far the story is rather different. Well, almost entirely different. Seems to be exploring a rather different dynamic. Can’t wait to get further.
Graphics: Much better than the first but still has room for improvement. The cutscenes look kinda shoddy and there are a lot of clipping problems.

See, not much! Back to it for me!

Under the cut there are pictures of all the CE stuff except for the posters because I was too lazy to unwrap them.  A couple of screens as well.
Enjoy!

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