The first chapter of the new Tales of Monkey Island game is really rather good. Lush 3D graphics, an OK navigation system (once you realise you can also use the arrow or WASD keys to move like in Wallace&Gromit because the click/drag mouse control sucks) and the typical click to interact with/pick up objects and characters controls. The inventory has two special slots for combining items (drag each into a separate slot, click icon) which is a bit tedious. Don't know why you can't just pick up one object and drop it on another as you do in the game world.

Those are the two only drawbacks, really. The dialogue is well acted and reasonably witty and there are enough references to the old games (and other LucasArts titles) to keep oldtimers like me happy. It's not as outrageously funny as the originals but it's not groanworthy, either. The puzzles are all logical but you need to pay close attention to everything on the screen (and the dialogue) and sometimes have to pan the screen with the cursor to find all clickable objects. The timed bits aren't too tricky and doable even on a laptop without mouse and the two map navigation puzzles are nicely done. I think I only had one or maybe two "try everything with everything" moments but when something worked I usually thought, 'Why didn't I think of that?'.
There's no combat in this chapter. I don't know if this is going to change but I'd love to see a return of the insult system or something similar as timed/exact clicking systems rarely work well in point and clickers where the emphasis is on story and puzzle solving, not pixel accuracy.

It took me about seven hours to finish so it's not that long but it's only the first chapter (there's a total of five, one a month) so the full game will be good value for money ($35). I for one can't wait til Chapter 2, especially with that cliffhanger.

As they did with Sam&Max, Telltale made a classic their own while still staying true to the orginal. If you like point-and-click adventures, you'll love this, especialy when you've played the three classic ones (and other LucasArts games).

Tags: games
Current Mood: content

Ah, fast internet connection, how I've missed you. Yahoo Mail works, too. Odd.
Now I have lots of catching up to do, some shopping and prepping tomorrow and then a photoshoot on Thursday. Yay!

Current Mood: content

Click the pic to go there

Current Mood: hot

Fireworks was quite good. Our view was slightly diminished as that copse of trees between us and the area has grown quite a bit so we couldn't see the bits that were rather low in the sky. Also it wasn't quite dark enough yet so there wasn't much contrast. I took quite a few photos but only some came out (oddly enough the ones with the long lens had less jitter than the ones with the short lens). The wobbly table I put the gorillapod on didn't help.

Editing photos on this laptop is a chore (not enough oomph and not enough memory) so I'll most likely re-edit quite a few when I'm back in CB.

Here's a small collection from the day. Might do a few fireworks ones as well (unless the laptop falls over completely).

Tags: holiday, wiesenfest
Current Mood: content

Weather was meh so I read books and watched TV but in the evening I headed out to the funfair to take some photos:

Tags: colour, fun fair, long exposures, photos
Current Mood: sleepy

Wolfgang Ambros and Werner Schmidbauer singing stuff by the Stones, The Monkees, Rod Stewart etc. in English but with strong Austrian and Bavarian accents is awesome. :D
And now Ambros is singing My Way. I really need to get his Tom Waits cover album, too.

Current Mood: cheerful

This was Monday morning when I waited for my train to Stansted. The sun wasn't quite up yet and there was this beautiful light and lovely, crisp air.



( Bigger and one more )

Tags: cambridge, photos, station

Listening to Steve Earle's tribute album. It is very very indeed. Earle makes the songs his own while staying true to the spirit of the originals. I'd love to hear these live in an intimate setting, like, say, the Bluebird Cafe.

Tags: music, steve earle, townes van zandt
Current Mood: enthralled

jholloway asked me to take some photos of his miniatures. It was a bit tricky as the best place to do it was outside and it was very windy and the trees wouldn't stay upright. The building scene was taken on the flagstones which worked OK for the main shot but there isn't enough detail for the crops. Stupidly, I didn't think of taking some detail shots with the macro lens I had used for the bronze statue. I blame the heat for turning my brain into slush...



The tight crops would have been much better as full macro shots but I had no way of elevating the scene so I could use the tripod and the macro lens. Handheld macros are tricky as well. Oh for a decent space with a table and enough room around it to set up lights (or a nice big window beside it)...

Tags: macro photography, me being rubbish, photos
Current Mood: okay

Current Mood: amused