You see? Gone Home has somehow reactivated that line of thought. Wouldn’t it be awesome to have first person adventure games where the main mechanic doesn’t involve surviving in a horrible environment or killing things? We’ll see when this one comes out, I guess.

Isn’t Kickstarter the best thing that has happened lately in the world when it comes to video games? I didn’t even know a non US based company could make use of it, but here we have Stainless, running their campaign towards a mere $400k goal. Would you pay $15 for the possibility of driving a shiny Eagle V over the 3D model of Tim Schaffer while some lawyer in the US calls you a psychopath? I know I would!

If you want to pledge your allegiance to the project, just follow this link.

In any case, everything should be back to normal now.

The reason for changing servers wasn’t because the service I was receiving from OVH was bad at all. Their support team was always there when I needed them. At one point I had a faulty hard drive, and they changed it in barely 3 hours since I opened the incidence. Yet, this level of service comes with a price that, while quite fair, is too high for me to be paying at this moment.

I’m still rolling with OVH, although now I’m doing it through the Brotherhood‘s infrastructure. Sadly, I don’t think this could count as an oath of fealty of sorts.

It’s meant to appeal to both the MMO consumers and The Elder Scrolls fans. By reading how, you can already see why the Internet has replied to the announcement with a brief “meh”. What does it bring from classic MMOs? Mostly everything. There are quests, no matter how pretty they want to spell them (you talk with a guy, he gives you a hint on where to go and what to do for a reward), there are fixed classes, and a three faction PvP. Oh, and a stamina bar and a limited number of available skills at any given time. Basically, you can blend World of Warcraft, Dark Age of Camelot and Guild Wars, and there you are.

What does it bring from The Elder Scrolls? Nothing that really matters. I’d say the background and lore, but as it has been adapted so the MMO makes sense, it has hardly anything to do with the books you could have read while playing the previous games. The three alliances feel as awkward as the two factions from Warhammer Online felt. Also, Zenimax Online Studios claims the game will be extrahuge, but everything will be full of interesting places to explore. You know, as in early TES games, where not every single square inch of the map was related to a specific quest. Hardly believable, if you ask me. I’m thinking on either masked corridors or deserts full of random critters that have no real reason to be there.

Oh, and of course, there is a story for your character. One that’s set, that is, where everyone had the same problem (Daedra stole mah soul!) and is seeking the exact same objective.

Why? Why make such an uninspired mess? A 250 person team has been creating the game for 5 years already. How is that even possible? How can you work for that long in a game and make sure not a single bit of originality is imprinted in the design?

Anyway, here you have the trailer, although you can as well skip it. It’s only a guy giving you the excuse for the bland background.

Also, if for any reason you’d like to know more about this, I highly recommend you this thread in Neogaf.

Featuring a large dungeon to crawl divided in different zones, and tons of enemies to kill, a number of bosses, several secrets, and plenty of power-ups, this little game has little to be ashamed of. Controls, mostly. Jumps are a bit tricky (not to the point of La-Mulana, thank goodness) and your knight has serious troubles to jump off ladders, as you can easily see in the video above. This can get a bit maddening when you see danger coming slowly towards you as your character descends (or ascends) at an even slower pace directly to take damage, but on the other hand this is in part an actual mechanic of the game, by design, forcing you to time your movements to avoid taking hits. Not too natural for anyone who ever played this kind of games, but tolerable and certainly not deal breaking, once you get used to it.

By the way, the soundtrack is fantastic.

The game is in Japanese, which I’m assuming nobody reading this blog speaks. Thankfully, for those of us unable to make any sense out of kanjis, there’s an English patched version on RGCD.

A solid (and free!) experience that will get you hooked for at least a couple of days, once you get past the initial awkwardness of the ladder controls. 7/10.

Apart from a level design I’ve seen defined as “dreadful”, Mushroom Kingdom Fusion offers the most bizarre mix of every single retro franchise you ever loved. Mario gunning down a demon from Doom? Tails fleeing from one of those horrendous headless beasts from Quake? Sir Arthur climbing those platform filled hallways from Metroid? All of this and a lot more happens in this game. No single trademark is left unraped. While Abobo’s Big Adventure may be a proper homage (or satire, up to you) to those NES titles you grew to love, mushroom Kingdom Fusion hijacks your nightmares after two days of uninterrupted play and makes them real. Yet, it is somehow… fun. In a very unclean way. I can certainly see the effort put behind it, and, in the end, you have to take into account that it’s the result of the work of fans, released for free, for your enjoyment.

All I can say is grab it while it’s hot and see it for yourself.

Source: [Blistered Thumbs]