#sierra studios

[mvfm-25]

" Terror is contagious! " PC Gamer Magazine Vol. 07 n08 - August, 2000.

[compactmemory]

Team Fortress Classic 1999 ᶜᵒᵐᵖᵃᶜᵗᵐᵉᵐᵒʳʸ

[tinysamm]

While the slow introduction of the core narrative is a major component of the opening sequence in Half-Life, it also serves as an effective method of conveying horror by establishing what normal looks like through the eyes of the player character, Gordon Freeman. The catastrophic scientific event that sets the events of the game into motion only have weight to them because after the player dons their HEV Suit and has to escape the facility, they spend a good several hours slowly finding their way through an office complex they only just earlier were able to stroll through without issue.

[spritegraphic]

Box art found on Sierra Studios’ website c. 2001

[thefugitivesaint]

I have zero love for nostalgia but I have to admit to feeling something similar to nostalgia after coming across these ads for PC games that once occupied substantial amounts of my free time in the late 90s and the early 2000s (with the exception of Arcanum which had some frustratingly janky gameplay). As far as I’m concerned these 20 year old games still hold up (perhaps not graphically speaking) and some of them have had ‘Enhanced Edition’ re-releases (and awkward Switch ports) that I fully endorse (if cRPGs are your thing, for example, the well crafted ‘Planescape: Torment’, a game that retains my love, in spite of its combat mechanics, for its humor, its involved plot, and its memorable characters). Each of these titles serve as a road map documenting the history of the form and formula of many modern games in one way or another. These were the games that introduced voice acting and complex dialog tree options, innovations that created an immersive experience that elevated the games above their flaws. Having the ability to cultivate relationships with your characters was entirely new at the time (it’s just a standard part of many games now) and this really helped give players a sense of participation in what kind of story you were experiencing.  Of course, you have to enjoy the format of these games which often involve reading copious amounts of text (the amount of text various from game to game but, overall, I just approach these games like I’m engaged with an interactive novel), sometimes clunky combat, and, like many games, repetitive tasks. If you do stay, you stay for the story and world building because that’s were the strengths of these games rests. They’re “classics” for a reason. Contemporary games that try to reproduce the feel of these titles would be games like ‘Disco Elysium’, ‘Tyranny’, ‘Pillars of Eternity’, ‘Divinity: Original Sin’, the ‘Wasteland’ series, and ‘Pathfinder: Kingmaker’ (a game I found frustrating to play TBH and never finished). Each of these examples has their own spin on the cRPG format (’Disco Elysium’ substitutes skill checks for combat for instance) and I’ve enjoyed them all as they did their own thing. I don’t dig most FPS (especially if it’s military oriented like ‘Call of Duty’, the ‘Borderlands’ series being a notable exception here given how much fun I found them to be) and some folk don’t dig cRPGs. To each their own. But, if you do, I encourage you to try some of these games out, you might find them a pleasant expenditure of time. 

[hackerwrench]

[lydiaplain]

Behind the scenes: recording "The Sky is Falling" 

Moments from the recording session of "The Sky is Falling" for Kings of the Rollers. 

One of the things that is not very obvious about a musician's life is that it includes much silence. So many silent moments occur in between music making, that when you see it recorded in a video it looks so much more silent than it feels. It's the balance to the musician's mind that is needed between the sound-producing and thinking of it in absolute silence to the others. Because, somehow it's never too silent in the mind of the musician. There's always something sounding in there. 

"Kings of the Rollers - The Sky is Falling feat. Lydia Plain" is available everywhere to stream and download. 

Visit Hospital Records website to purchase the whole album in physical form here: https://www.hospitalrecords.com/shop/release/kings-of-the-rollers/nhs349-kings-of-the-rollers

[thewilliamambervein]

Gearbox is teasing a new Homeworld game