Yesterday (iOS)

I used to really enjoy point and click adventure games but I've kind of fallen off playing them in the past 10+ years. Part of that has been moving onto other genres and part of that has been Lucas Arts' retirement from the genre. That said, there have still been a number of studios that have consistently been making point and click games in the interim. One of those is Pendulo Studios who made the Runaway series of games and The Next Big Thing. I actually own the first Runaway game (Runaway: A Road Adventure) but as with many games I buy during Steam sales I've yet to even download it let alone play it! However, one I finish Pendulo's new game, Yesterday, I'll definitely be checking it out to see how it compares. 

Point and click adventures are perfect for the iOS - touch substitutes well for a mouse, there're slow paced, bite sized and you can save anywhere. Yesterday does some really neat things to make the user-experience even more streamlined. Since the last 'new' point and click adventure I played was (I think) Grim Fandango I don't know if these are additions developed specifically for this game or if they're now the genre standard.

The most notable feature is that when you double click on an area of the screen your character basically teleports to that new region rather than walking there. It may seem like a very simple, almost trivial, addition but it really helps speed up the gameplay when you don't have to wait for your player to complete his slow walking animation to get around the screen. This also helps to prevent the monotony of hunting around your environment at a snail's pace. 

Another great addition is a button that you press that automatically highlights all the objects in the environment that you can interact with! This completely removes all the frustration inherent to the 'pixel hunting' that was an integral part of old point and click adventures. 

Both of these additions are fantastic because they allow you to focus on the most important aspects of a click and point adventure - the puzzles and the story. There is nothing inherently skill based or enjoyable about clicking around the screen on every pixel to see if it's selectable (and then waiting for your character to walk around while doing it).

The story of Yesterday is difficult to explain without spoiling but it basically surrounds the main character, John Yesterday, a researcher on the occult who awakes in hospital after apparently attempting to commit suicide. What follows is a fairly serious story that weaves together the occult, satanism, murder, a grand conspiracy (of course) and also an element of fantasy. You can tell from some of the dialogue that this was a game perhaps not written by native English speakers or possibly translated from a different language (Pendulo Studios are based in Spain), but it doesn't ruin the narrative at all and there's still some very good characterization. 

The puzzles are also well done in that they're logical and actually make a modicum of sense. Sure the solutions to puzzles in the Monkey Island games were hilarious but some of them could only be solved with trial and error. I've yet to find a similarly annoying puzzle in Yesterday and as a result you actually get a sense of satisfaction when you do find a solution.  

Voice acting is solid except for one swarmi character who has the worst East Indian accent I've ever heard! Seriously, Pendulo - if you ever revive that character in a future game I'm available to do that character pro bono! The visuals are very good with some really nice art direction. This was actually a PC game first (see the pic above) so the graphics shrunk down to an iOS device look very crisp and clean. 

Yesterday is available for $6.99 on iTunes which, in the crazy economy of iOS games, seems like a lot but I've had a lot of fun with it so far and definitely think it's worth a look if you're interested in a new point and click adventure. 

Lavan

Remember arcade machines?

Sitting here in the departures lounge of Pearson Airport playing Yesterday (impressions coming soon) on my iPad while waiting for my flight to board I suddenly found myself nostalgic for old arcade machines. Growing up I never really went to stand-alone arcades until I was a teen so my exposure to arcade games initially came from visits to the airport as a child. Being part of an immigrant family growing up in the UK,  my dad would often find himself going to the airport regularly to either pick up or drop off numerous relatives and family friends. I'm guessing most 7 year old boys liked to go to the airport to see the airplanes. Not me. I saved up my change and went to the airport to play games whose graphics and sound would blow me away.

In the mid-80s any and all my gaming at home was done on my trusty Sinclair ZX-Spectrum 48K - games on tape, monochrome graphics and tinny sound. So when I went to the arcades (er...I mean the airport) and got to play things like Gauntlet, Space Harrier, and Outrun I was completely blown away. Arcade machines were this magical, mysterious powerhouses of gaming that utterly annihilated anything you could experience at home. Playing them also involved 45-60 minute drive to get there which added to the sense of occasion and wonderment.

Arcade-ports (remember them?) were a major selling point for home titles but could never come close to the majesty of their cabinet versions. I distinctly remember getting Paperboy for the Spectrum as a gift and being delighted that I was playing an arcade game at home!!

As I got older, I started to hang out more at the local community centre which also had a neat selection of different arcade machines that would rotate every few months. I remember playing the crap out of Double Dragon (another gem I ended up getting the Spectrum version for) and it was the first arcade game I ever finished. Around that time more and more intricate cabinets would be on show when I made a trip to the airport. I don't think I've ever been more floored by a video game than the first time I saw Hard Drivin' and it's colored 3D graphics and the Afterburner cockpit cabinet was like something from another planet! I was convinced if I did really well at it then Centauri would reveal that it was all a training exercise and I was ready to be a real life fighter pilot!

I was too young to experience Walter Day's golden age of gaming when Pac-Man, Defender and Missile Command created an insatiable buzz around arcades but I was around to experience the madness that was Street Fighter II's appearance on the arcade scene. It was incredible - people literally crowded around machines like something from a movie. The game itself was also stunning - amazing visuals with these gorgeous, colorful sprites and detailed backgrounds....and why is that guy in the Guile stage jerking off? Furthermore, in the pre-FAQ era it was also something of a mystery - how exactly did you pull off those flashy moves? Would someone tell you how to pull off a dragon punch? Isn't that supposed to be Mike Tyson? How are you supposed to pronounce Ryu? (for the record, I think I spent a decade incorrectly calling him 'Rye-You')

I wonder, though, if it was Street Fighter II (and specifically it's port to the SNES) that marked the beginning of the decline of arcades. I know arcade machines were still doing okay a decade later but I remember that SF II on the SNES was the first arcade-port where I thought to myself; "Wow, this almost is as good as the arcade version." It was the first inkling that you could have a system at home that could produce visuals that matched those magical cabinets at the arcade/community centre/airport/chippy. And that is, in my mind, why arcades are pretty much extinct - you can now have those types of experiences at home without having to pump in quarters. In fact, your phone probably supports a version of Street Fighter II that looks better than the original arcade machine!

I daren't say it's a shame that arcades have died (its innumerably more convenient to play games at home) but I do miss that sense of awe and wonder that came with those cabinets.

Lavan

PES 2013 Demo Impressions

For as long as I can remember 'Seabass' Tekatsuka has been the top dog at Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo and head producer of the Winning Eleven/Pro Evolution Soccer series. However, coinciding with the flagging fortunes of the WE/PES series (though I still maintain last year's title was somewhat of a return to form) there's been a shake-up at Konami and Seabass has been replaced by Kei Masuda. No word on whether or not he'll earn an aquatic nickname.

We got our first look at Masuda's work as the head of WE/PES when the demo for PES 2013 was released this week. It's available for the 360, PS3 and PC and features 4 International teams (Italy, Germany, England, and Portugal) and 4 South American club teams (Flamengo, Fluminense, Internacional and Santos). After extensive time with the 360 and PC versions I have to say I'm incredibly impressed with the improvements made to the game engine thus far.

I think the two biggest changes right off the bat are the passing/shooting system and the ball physics, particularly when it comes to dribbling and ball control. You can now turn off all the assists for passing and shooting and have almost full control over where the ball goes. Holding down L2/LT brings up an arrow that shows the direction that your pass or shot will go in. Also you can use R2/RT button to add curl/finesse to passes as well as shots. These two things allow you much more freedom with your passing and shooting. 

Ball physics, via the representation of ball control and momentum, are fantastic in the demo. There are new features where the changes are obvious such as holding down R2/RT when controlling a ball which brings it to a stop and close to you, or you press in the Right Stick when the ball approaches to flick it on. But the changes in physics are apparent with more granularity even with simple things like controlling a ball on the run - if you're turning or at a full sprint the ball won't be kept as close, if you slow down then it will. Of course, this also differs by players - Ozil can keep the ball close to him at all times versus a lumberjack like Andy Carroll who needs more time and space. 

The net result of this is the most fun dribbling model I've seen in a football game - even better than that found in FIFA 12. Even without using the R2 and Right Stick modifiers, just twisting and turning in tight spaces is a lot more fun and organic. When you throw in the aforementioned modifiers with the right players and you can pull off some magical moves. 

Fancy footwork has been present in both FIFA and WE/PES for the last few years but it hasn't been without problems. In FIFA 12 the problem was response time - in the Arena/Free mode you could pull off all the moves you want with ease, but when you try to do them against the CPU, the half-second lag between inputting commands and seeing the results was enough for you to lose the ball. In PES 2012, the issue was complexity - trying to pull off some of the moves was harder than a 10-hit Street Fighter combo!

In the PES 2013 demo, both issues seem addressed; there's minimal input lag between the controller and your player, and the moves themselves are much easier to do. I was actually able to 'Nutmeg' a defender (and mean it) without breaking my fingers! This makes using the skill players so much fun.

There are a few other improvements in the demo I thought were worthy of note:

- Give and go's are also altered as now you can select which general direction you'd like the initial passer to run in after he's dished off the ball. 

- The game still has the off-the-ball controls that last year's game had (where you can control a second player while you have the ball by flicking the right stick and then clicking the stick to initiate a run) but now adds a short corner feature where if you hold down the R1/RB button it brings a forward close for a short pass. 

- Lobs are finally back to the WE9-style and you can actually lob a keeper as you would do in real life (with the ball looping high with backspin). 

- The defending system is largely the same as PES 2012 (which was already quite good), but now double tapping the X/A button performs a lunging tackle (a happy medium between a standing and a sliding tackle)

As for negatives, one that has to be mentioned is the shoddy frame-rate in the 360 demo - it's pretty glaring at times and Konami really have to iron that out for the final release (it's not an issue in the PC version). Also, I didn't see too much variation in how the AI build up their attacks - everything seemed pretty direct and right up the field when the CPU got the ball. Finally, while you're given the option for full passing control almost everywhere on the field, the one area where it's absent is the crossing which is still, as far as I can tell, semi-auto.

I'm really enjoying the PES 2013 demo. On the PC, with the 'demo-extender' patch I've logged more than a few hours with various settings and it's been a ton of fun. I'm a soccer-whore so I was always going to buy both FIFA and PES this year but I'm definitely looking more forward to Konami's game.

Lavan

PS I threw together a quick montage video of action from the demo using Neymar. Hope you enjoy it.