When EA decided to adapt its lucrative Sims franchise for what they believed to be the core Nintendo demographic, they apparently did rather well. Not exceptionally well mind, but both MySims Wii and MySims DS are above average cute little games with lovely visuals and the trademarked doll-house gameplay. Sold decently too. Obviously though, that was not good enough, and that must be the reason behind the creation of MySims Kingdom, the latest installment in the MySims series that should appear some time during the autumn of 2008 for both the Wii and the DS.

MySims Kingdom (by the way, do bother looking at the screens posted above, they are quite nice and rather appropriately from the game) seems like a new direction to the series, as -according to EA- players will get to embark on adventures, explore stuff and generally try to bring joy and happiness to a whole bloody Kingdom. This of course involves quite a lot of journeying, talking to characters (even wizards), solving puzzles, tending to pigs, building houses, collecting… err… collectibles and at times fixing bridges. Oh, and in case you were wondering, the tried and tested gameplay of The Sims shouldn’t be lacking either… just given more substance really.

When Myst first hit the Mac and PC gaming scenes back in the early 90s, nobody expected it to be such a ridiculously grand mega-hit, but, well, quite obviously it was. The thing sold millions of copies. Millions! Must have been due to the MPC/CD fad it seems and the fact that adventures were having sort of a golden era did help quite a bit methinks, but oddly this weird first person point-and-click offering seems to still be selling and has already managed to make it into a Simpsons episode. Besides, it’s got legions of fans still waiting for another sequel and even craving for the URU experience. Impressive, really, and very very mainstream.

If you ask me, on the other hand, Myst with its static but breathtaking graphics, flick-screen progression, obscure mechanical puzzles, weird ambient sounds, lack of plot and huge success, was the worst thing to ever happen to adventures. It did away with story, became a hit despite that and went on to spawn a thousand sequels and rip-offs that quite literally drowned the scene. Then again it does remain -even to this day- a highly playable, highly atmospheric game. A good game.

And now, Myst made it to the Nintendo DS in the guise of the aptly named Myst DS and it still is as great an adventure as it used to. The graphics have been slightly compressed mind you, the controls do feel archaic and the small screens don’t really help with the immersion, but it still is the original Myst in your palm, which does feel kinda impressive. Just don’t expect anything new or any bonus content…

Gotta love successful consoles really. Everyone tries to make something to add on to them, in the vain hope you (among others) dear readers will go on and buy it. The Wii of course is no exception and has already been flooded with a ton of first and third party add-ons. ButtonSmasher presents you with the ones you might actually need (besides the extra Wii Remote or Nunchuck, that is):

Nintendo Classic Controller
A twin analog solution mainly focused at retro gamers and a must-have accessory for N64 lovers. Also supported by quite a few proper games one of which happens to be Super Smash Bros Brawl.

Mad Catz Component Cable
You know, just like the Nintendo offering, though easier to find and slightly cheaper. Besides, a component cable is the cheapest/fastest way to upgrade the graphics quality of the Wii, provided of course your TV is up to it.

Nintendo LAN Adapter
For the poor souls craving net connectivity but lacking a WiFi router. Obvious.

San Disk Memory Card
Of the 1GB variety. Quite handy though we’d rather have a hard disk. WiiWare is just around the corner, seems more than intriguing, so how about it Nintendo?

Joyteck Power Station
Think of the environment. Think of the hassle of leaving your comfy place to go out and buy batteries. Think of the cost. Think of way to recharge your Wii Remotes. Now grab a Power Station. Good.

And that’s as official as this kind of news can possibly go, and the first time ever I got a vaguely interesting e-mail from any PR team. Thanks for the tip oh id software and thanks for letting us know you still haven’t finalized the team to work on DOOM 4 and are thus on the lookout for developers. Now, please do give us a moment to cath our collective breath. The announcement was really exciting. Too exciting to be frank, as is any continuation of the ultimate battle against the abominably nasty forces of evil. DOOM will get a sequel! Sometime!

Problem is though, that id was extremely sparse on any kind of other info. I’m free to speculate! Yay! Well, DOOM 4 will surely appear on the PC and judging from the Xbox version of DOOM 3 I could hazard a guess and say it will probably -at least- make it to the Xbox 360, though the PS3 shouldn’t realistically be left out either. Now, as I have only played the PC version of DOOM 3 and still consider it extremely good looking, I’d like to remind id (who presumably won’t be able to sleep till I get on with my rant) that they should not solely focus on the engine, with which I’m sure they’ll make a stellar job. Enemy AI, atmosphere, gameplay and a marine that can simultaneously hold a flashlight and a gun should under no circumstances be ignored.

I can’t really say what got into me, but I just felt this unstoppable urge to write about Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos and its brilliant expansion The Frozen Throne. Now, as I’m pretty sure everyone has heard about the games, probably played them to death too, problem is I can’t do much more than urge anyone who hasn’t tried them to actually do so as soon as humanly possible (they are among the best RTS games ever as far as I am concerned, you know), remind everyone else just how interesting a character Arthas was, wish for a sequel, moan a bit about Wolrd of Warcraft and how boring it has turned out to be, light a cigar and go to bed. Not much of a post really…

To patch things up, I’ve decided to focus on the story bits of the game(s), as they were admittedly both great and oddly at odds with what most ludologists consider proper video game storytelling. You see, both WC III and its expansion used the much-maligned old-fashioned way of telling in-game stories: the not particularly interactive cutscene method. Truth be said, the cutscene, no matter how impressive, smart, touching, whatever it turns out to be, is not playing to the strengths of the medium and definitely doesn’t help the player feel as if his/her actions impact on the gaming world. It isn’t considered a good immersion technique. Yet, it can work, and Warcraft is all the proof anyone should need that there is no particular way a story should be told. In Warcraft III the player (well, ok, I at least) feels engrossed, impressed by the visual quality of the storytelling and deeply involved in the proceedings. Why? Because the quality of a story itself matters more than the way it is delivered, that’s why…

So, uhm, without further ado, here goes…

Silent Hill Origins

Horror can be quite difficult to pull off on a handheld and this game is probably as good as it gets. Well, so far really, as this is the very first Silent Hill game to go portable. It’s not perfect, not by far and definitely not when the clunky camera and combat mechanics are taken into account, but Origins still is a great game that really nails the Silent Hill atmosphere and reveals the… err… origins that originally turned Silent Hill to the hellish ghost town it now is. Brilliant and disturbing graphics, superb sound effects, new characters and chilling monsters make this best PSP horror game yet.

Metal Slug Anthology

Ok, I know I’ve mentioned this one before, but apparently you keep ignoring it. Tsk, tsk, I say, how dare you? This is a collection of the best side-scrolling action platformer shooting game-thingies ever and even comes with a nice scent of nostalgia. And don’t get me started on the aesthetic pleasures the graphics provide. Or the sick humor. Besides, this PSP offering includes Metal Slug, Metal Slug 2, Metal Slug X, Metal Slug 3, Metal Slug 4 and Metal Slug 5.

Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony

A PC action-CRPG that manages to decently squeeze itself to appear on the PSP’s small but shiny screen, while simultaneously adapting to the needs of on the go gaming, is quite an impressive sight indeed, and that’s what Dungeon Siege: Throne of Agony is. Impressive. It offers hours of smooth gameplay, three story lines, tons of weapons, an impressive variety of baddies, excellent controls, good audio, multiplayer options and nice graphics. Oh, yes, and lots and lots of hacking and slashing while waiting for the bus.

It might be almost a decade old and should probably qualify as retro, but I just can’t help feel that Star Wars X-Wing Alliance still does a pretty impressive impression of a modern game (especially if you patch it up and probably more so when its new homebrew textures hit the Internet). Besides, 10 years isn’t such a long time, is it? And good games never age.

Especially so, when said good games are more or less the last offerings of their sub-genre, as was X-Wing Alliance, for it sadly was the very last Star Wars space-combat sim that let players sit inside a cockpit. Following the excellent X-Wing, nigh on perfect TIE Fighter and multiplayer-only X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter, Alliance not only brought the series to an explosive climax and allowed anti-social kids and accountants worldwide to fantasize about being starry-eyed space heroes, but also let us proper gamers relive key events from the Star Wars saga and even the end of the Empire itself. And, yes, this does actually mean we got to fly the Millennium Falcon inside the second Death Star as never before and never since. See the screenshot?

Sheer computer gaming joy. What’s more, the game also let (arguably still does, as it’s got no problems on my XP PC) you pilot a variety of classic Rebel Alliance starships ranging from the aptly named X-Wing classic, to the vaguely A-shaped A-Wing, to the Y-Wing, through a brilliant campaign that spanned 50 missions. Oh, and graphics and audio are still impressive, the gameplay hasn’t aged a day and multiplayer dogfights are unsurpassed.

I did try to live under a rock for awhile and actually ignore Grand Theft Auto 4 and all of its pre-release hype, post-release ridiculous reviews and everything in between, but apparently I failed. Not hopelessly mind you, but failed nonetheless. I did watch a few video reviews, you see, couldn’t help but check a few admittedly impressive trailers, noticed the impressive sales and even though I haven’t yet gone for either GTA 4 Xbox 360 or GTA 4 PS3, I must admit to being quite a bit intrigued. GTA 4 it seems, is an incredibly polished, huge, ridiculously detailed and feature-laden game, but impressively it’s more than that too, and no I’m not talking about the apparently decent story either. Nor the abundance of mini-games and new mechanics.

What really got me was the brilliant -obviously stylized too- recreation of New York City, which, the way I see it, is the first time a city has been so vibrantly portrayed in a video game. Now, I may just be wrong about this as I haven’t gotten my hands on the actual game yet, but it felt beyond right. It felt as if someone has really managed to present a beautiful, detailed, interpretation of NY with a distinct but well-meant touch of sarcasm (how very contradictory) using some utterly amazing technology. What’s more, the thing is interactive too! And it’s even got what look like normal people in it!

For a more elaborate look and an accordingly longer post though, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for me to get a copy of the thing, which hopefully wont take too long…