A Twisted Tale and My First Impressions of Stargate SG-1
Yes, it's Christmas Eve, but I thought I'd get out one last blog post before Christmas. I finished A Twisted Tale yesterday, although it's meant to be the first chapter of seven. There's a better chance of this game continuing because it came out this year, however I'm not sure how I'd feel about continuing. There's very little background about what the plot to this game is. You play as a woman named Vio who has this cube that opened a portal in her home, and she goes through it to find herself in another world with floating islands and she's trying to find her way back home. That's it. That's the plot. I finished this game knowing virtually nothing about the world nor who Vio is really. There's not much development at all.
I also felt like this game relied a bit too heavily on its inspirations from LucasArts adventure games. There's even an orichalcum bead in it as one the inventory items. I also had to abuse the walkthrough a lot because I had no clue what I was supposed to be doing most of the time. The puzzles often relied on clicking on hotspots multiple times to get something to happen. I didn't like that. Speaking of hotspots, the game really could have used a hotspot finder. That would have helped a lot. It's easy to miss interactive areas. I didn't even see there was a whole location I missed that I only found out about by looking at the walkthrough. So unfortunately I found the game more aggravating than fun to play. There were issues with the volume controls too. The voices would either be too loud or quiet and that was even with the sound adjustments. One character sings very loudly and it's obnoxious.
To give some positives though, the voice acting was good, the cartoon graphics were nice and the few animated cutscenes were especially good, but those are the only good things I can really say. I admit I had high expectations for this game just based on how it looked, but it let me down because of the lack of development and other frustrations. It's possible the game would improve with subsequent chapters, however I think I'd only want to play them if they make some changes like adding in a hotspot finder. Here's a screenshot. This guy. This antiques dealer was the most irritating character ever lol.
Next up, I've started a game called Yorkshire Gubbins. It's only the second game I've played about Yorkshire this year, which is weird that I've played two of them. It's a heavily pixelated point-and-click. I'm not sure what it's about really yet, but I'm already finding it really funny, so I think I'm going to enjoy this game more.
One final thing. So, I did watch the Stargate movie and I did think it was pretty good. Nothing mind blowing, but still pretty good. I didn't remember it at all. And now I've officially started Stargate SG-1. I'm up to episode seven. It's a good thing I watched the movie first because the first two episodes are actually like a direct sequel to the movie. I thought the opener was pretty good, although there have definitely been a couple cringeworthy sexist episodes. I'm hoping it will be like the first season of TNG where it's got a rough first season and then gets better. I am enjoying it though. I like the characters, especially Teal'c. I guess he's kind of like a Spock comic relief character. And the parasite thing makes me think of the Trill. Of course I'm going to compare it to Star Trek. Yes I am.
As for the other characters, two of them were from the movie: Daniel Jackson and Jack O'Neill. Different actors play them of course, which is to be expected. I like who they picked for Daniel. He kind of looks and sounds like his character from the movie. The guy they picked for Jack however, neither looks nor sounds like Kurt Russell. He's MacGyver though, so it's fine lol. And he has some funny one-liners. The other major character on the team is Sam Carter. I like her too and I hope she'll get more development. I also now know what SG-1 means. It's just Stargate One. So, when you think about it, the show is really called Stargate: Stargate One, which is funny when I think of it that way.
I have to admit though based on the premise of the show, it wasn't quite what I was expecting. Yes, they visit other worlds, but so far they've all been based on ancient civilizations from Earth. I get it for possible budgetary reasons, why they'd have to keep it more grounded, but I was expecting more alien worlds. However, the latest world they've ended up on seems more alien, so perhaps that's going to change. It does feel like the show is starting to pick up. I am enjoying it still and I can see it becoming a new obsession. There's a little cheesy acting here and there, but I like it. And those are my first impressions of this show. I'll probably talk more about season one, once I've finished it. For now, I'll be back when Christmas is over to talk about that a bit. I'll also have my end of the year lists coming in January, so I'm going to have to work around that. It's possible I might have to pause watching Stargate: SG-1 while I work on those if I don't finish season one before. I'll have to play it by ear on that one.
I also felt like this game relied a bit too heavily on its inspirations from LucasArts adventure games. There's even an orichalcum bead in it as one the inventory items. I also had to abuse the walkthrough a lot because I had no clue what I was supposed to be doing most of the time. The puzzles often relied on clicking on hotspots multiple times to get something to happen. I didn't like that. Speaking of hotspots, the game really could have used a hotspot finder. That would have helped a lot. It's easy to miss interactive areas. I didn't even see there was a whole location I missed that I only found out about by looking at the walkthrough. So unfortunately I found the game more aggravating than fun to play. There were issues with the volume controls too. The voices would either be too loud or quiet and that was even with the sound adjustments. One character sings very loudly and it's obnoxious.
To give some positives though, the voice acting was good, the cartoon graphics were nice and the few animated cutscenes were especially good, but those are the only good things I can really say. I admit I had high expectations for this game just based on how it looked, but it let me down because of the lack of development and other frustrations. It's possible the game would improve with subsequent chapters, however I think I'd only want to play them if they make some changes like adding in a hotspot finder. Here's a screenshot. This guy. This antiques dealer was the most irritating character ever lol.
Next up, I've started a game called Yorkshire Gubbins. It's only the second game I've played about Yorkshire this year, which is weird that I've played two of them. It's a heavily pixelated point-and-click. I'm not sure what it's about really yet, but I'm already finding it really funny, so I think I'm going to enjoy this game more.
One final thing. So, I did watch the Stargate movie and I did think it was pretty good. Nothing mind blowing, but still pretty good. I didn't remember it at all. And now I've officially started Stargate SG-1. I'm up to episode seven. It's a good thing I watched the movie first because the first two episodes are actually like a direct sequel to the movie. I thought the opener was pretty good, although there have definitely been a couple cringeworthy sexist episodes. I'm hoping it will be like the first season of TNG where it's got a rough first season and then gets better. I am enjoying it though. I like the characters, especially Teal'c. I guess he's kind of like a Spock comic relief character. And the parasite thing makes me think of the Trill. Of course I'm going to compare it to Star Trek. Yes I am.
As for the other characters, two of them were from the movie: Daniel Jackson and Jack O'Neill. Different actors play them of course, which is to be expected. I like who they picked for Daniel. He kind of looks and sounds like his character from the movie. The guy they picked for Jack however, neither looks nor sounds like Kurt Russell. He's MacGyver though, so it's fine lol. And he has some funny one-liners. The other major character on the team is Sam Carter. I like her too and I hope she'll get more development. I also now know what SG-1 means. It's just Stargate One. So, when you think about it, the show is really called Stargate: Stargate One, which is funny when I think of it that way.
I have to admit though based on the premise of the show, it wasn't quite what I was expecting. Yes, they visit other worlds, but so far they've all been based on ancient civilizations from Earth. I get it for possible budgetary reasons, why they'd have to keep it more grounded, but I was expecting more alien worlds. However, the latest world they've ended up on seems more alien, so perhaps that's going to change. It does feel like the show is starting to pick up. I am enjoying it still and I can see it becoming a new obsession. There's a little cheesy acting here and there, but I like it. And those are my first impressions of this show. I'll probably talk more about season one, once I've finished it. For now, I'll be back when Christmas is over to talk about that a bit. I'll also have my end of the year lists coming in January, so I'm going to have to work around that. It's possible I might have to pause watching Stargate: SG-1 while I work on those if I don't finish season one before. I'll have to play it by ear on that one.