Uru Live: A game that ought not to be myst!

Adventure/logic game nerds have warmly welcomed the relaunch of Myst Online: Uru live. Me included.

Ok so it started in 2003 and despite the seven year gap not a lot has changed, but who's complaining? The Myst/Riven/Uru storylines have always been an integral part of the games as we see the developing and declining relationships with Atrus and his family in the bittersweet plot.

The original Myst and Riven games always had difficulty fitting the player into the plot. You have no name, no back history, not even a face, heck even the characters have no idea who you are. You are constantly approached with a suspicious sideways glance. "Who's this guy?" they say "Oh never mind, just fix this contraption for me will you?" In Uru live you and other players are special individuals called in to save the old civilisation of the D'ni by solving a number of logical puzzles.

What makes the story much more compelling is that instead of immersing the player into the beautiful, yet wholly fictional and unexplainable ages, the story of the D'ni interwines with the 'real world'. You begin the journey in New Mexico where remains of the D'ni civilisation were found in modern day, therefore sparking a development studio to create an educational video game called Myst. Nice twist eh?

Yeesha, Atrus's daughter from Myst III and IV appears in hologram form and fills you on your purpose to rebuild the D'ni Civilisation. "Sure, why not?" you say to yourself, "Nothing good on TV these days anyway."

Another difference from the original games is that it is set up in 3rd person format, i.e you create an avatar of yourself and watch your own bum wiggling in front of you as you gallop across the landscape. Granted, this had to be done to differeciante yourself from other online players but it rather strips the romantic mysterious nature of the game. Plus not a great deal of effort was made on characterisation, I feel like a Sim that has just eaten some bad ramen and had a bad trip into a psychdelic mindfield. This is why I keep 1st player mode on.

Ok so the biggie of the game, the online feature of course. It sort of works. Basically you can visit ages and solve problems on your own as normal without being disturbed by irritating people, but you can if you wish visit public ages where you can socialise with other players, get help for puzzles or frolic in buttercup fields with them, whatever. There is nothing worse than playing an MMORPG like World of Warcraft and being constantly ganked by some adolescent ass for lols or having to endure harassment from a gamer with a elf fetish. Uru is for the intellectual online gamer. You know the type, that mild mannered guy from accounting who sits at home in his M&S dressing gown reading War and Peace during game loads.

Don't let the online tag put you off if you are an avid Myst fan. The graphics are not as top grade quality as the previous games as expected in an RPG, but at least it gives you the freedom of exploring every weeny detail you couldn't beforehand. Plus the game and every age you visit is pretty damn huge.

Not bad at all for a game is which at present completely free to play online. Take that Wow, Conan, LOTR and all you other subscription games!

A short history of my gaming life

I've been naughty and not updated for ages! here is a lovely long piece about the marvellous world of RPG (role playing games for those newbs out there)and the wonderful memories

I'm not a gamer, but I do love and appreciate watching a video game and getting stucked right into its world.

It all started when my brother ditched his commodore, chucked the gameboy and began to buy games for our lovely super tech PC (Windows 95 ftw!) I would creep upstairs as quietly as an extremely clumsy nine year old girl could manage and peek into the computer room, mesmerised by the flickering sparkliness on the screen. At first he would tell me to shove off and annoy someone else like a good little cretin, but I soon learned that if I stopped my childish gabbling and just sat quietly he would let me watch. I watched as he blasted aliens into large gunky messes as Duke Nukem, fought through robot military bases in MDK and it wasn't long until I was cheering him on 'Yeah get him right between the eyes...cut him up, blow his brains out!!'

The potence behind these RPGs was addictive, my brother wasn't the weedy bespectacled nerd boy with a wafro, but some muscular bastard with a crew cut and a machine gun that instantly made everyone his bitch.

A few years later and the high profile adventure games started circulating the nerd vortex. They had a mixed reception from an audience so used to being Mr Explodey McStab Stab who were now challenged to stop and think and look at the pretty sights as they solve a logical puzzle. Myst has to be the mother of all adventure games.

Based on Jules Verne's The Mysterious Island, is it essentially about this bearded wonder called Atreus (who I secretly fancied) who creates massive and stunningly beautiful worlds which can be visited using a series of portals within books. Not surprisingly Atreus's dream of peace and lovey dovey hair braiding serenity all goes to shit thanks to several family members (never trust Grampop!)and you as the mysterious visitor have to clean up the cosmic doggie doo within a series of complicated puzzles and codes around the worlds.

Complicated is putting it lightly.
Both Myst, Riven and all their associated games are repulsively hard to complete. When I was playing it most of the time I was wandering round the pretty sunlit beaches and tribal villages like the lost child I actually was. No hints, no glimpses of answers, no Arthur (I will get into this later) to provide amusing yet helpful quips to shove you in the right direction. The trouble with Myst is that it is made by genuises, for genuises. I played Myst IV: Revelation about four years ago and like the dumbass I am I clutched hold of the walkthrough as I plodded through the delicious landscapes, no doubt with dribble down my chin.

A more accessible adventure game, and personally one of my favourites was The Journeyman Project 3. You are professional time traveller and Matt LeBlanc doppleganger Gage Blackwood who wears a massive jumpsuit which is reminscient of on old submarine diver.Your job is to clean after 'Judas' time travellers and naughty sods who have clumsily stumbled over the historical landscape like that neighbour who steps dog shit into your nice clean magnolia carpets.

Like so many games of this kind you have the knawing feel of loneliness after the two dimensional Genghis Khan or that spaced out Buddha run out of things to say and give you the fuck off face. However, nestled inside your spacesuit is a little marvel of A.I and his name is Arthur. He resembles some sort of armadillo helmet with large googley eyes with an engaging, adorable yet sharp sense of humour. I loved him as a kid, and I still do today, it was like a buddy road trip on an epic scale. In adventure games when you solve a puzzle something clicks into place,a door opens or whatever and you either whoop and cheer to yourself, which is slightly pathetic, or say 'meh' and trample on, your achievments unnoticed. In JMP3, Arthur does the whooping for you, pats you on the back (well in a figurative sense) and feeds you more snappy tidbits from his repetoire. If he could high five, you can bet he would.

This concludes this section of my gaming entry...when I'm more awake I will continue with part deux.