Dragonsphere - Oh! You Pretty Things

Written by Vetinari

Last time in this Dragonsphere playthrough we were just about to embark in a voyage across the Kingdom of Callahach starting from our own castle of Gran Callahach. When exiting the castle waystation, the game takes you to the map of the Kingdom, with the various realms that you can visit: Soptus Ecliptus, Brynn-Fann, Slathan ni Patan and Tyre nak Branwe, Sanwe's tower.

I decide to visit the Slathans first, because they seem to be the underdogs of this fantasy world. It is cool that, while the realms that you haven't visited yet appear on the map as just icons, when you go to them they change to a real 3D version of the place.

Before...

...and after.

Gabriel Knight - Cuts Like a Knife

Written by Michael

When we wrapped up last time, Gabriel had returned from an intense party and was suffering from a hangover of sorts.  Grace struggled to wake us up, and when she did, she gave us some advice:  call Uncle Wolfgang.

Let’s reach out and touch someone, and call Germany, shall we?

Dragonsphere - Heroes

Written by Vetinari

Welcome back to Dragon Ball – I mean Dragonsphere.

The two plots have some passing similarities, i.e. very few dragons.

We start the game proper with former Prince now King Callash in his chambers, being woken up by his wife Fiona (who is now the Queen, I guess?) saying that the dragonsphere is stirring more forcefully with every passing moment.

I just love that one of the possible answers to this dialogue is just “Let me sleep. We'll destroy the sorcerer another day.” We've all been there, right?

Anyway, Fiona and the Queen Mother (that is, Callash's mom) will await our hero in the council chamber before his departure. Callash makes his morning ablutions and then changes clothes, saying that, as per his teacher of etiquette, you must “do nothing in the clothes in which you sleep, except sleep”. Callash thinks that this is very sound advice even if he found some exceptions to the rule as he grew older. Okay, let's keep it PG-13, game.

Alone in the Dark 2 - Play Your Cards Right

 Written by Andy Panthro

Red herrings.

Last time, we found ourselves in the basement of the mansion. After dealing with many machine gun zombies, finally we’re getting some puzzles and the game feels a lot better for it. I basically have two options here, to go upstairs or to go into a side room that sounds like gunfire. Since I want to finish up down here before moving on upstairs, I check the side room.

As I mentioned last time, it turns out it sounds like gunfire because two burly guys with pistols are shooting targets on the other side of the room. Acting quickly with my battledore, I had dispatched them. The room has four posters of four playing cards on one wall: The Jack of Diamonds, the Queen of Clubs, the King of Spades, and the Ace of Hearts. At the other end of the room, are four pillars with pictures of each suit on their four sides. I am assuming I need to rotate the pillars so they match the wall pictures.

This took a bit of figuring out, as hitting the pillars did not always rotate them once. Then immediately I’m stumped, as I try Diamond, Club, Spade, Heart and it does nothing. Then I try them in reverse, still nothing. I’m curious if the suit means anything, or perhaps I’m just seeing puzzles where none exist.

Gabriel Knight - Lions, Tigers, and Bears... Oh My!

Written by Michael

Or, like a bad penny, I always turn up.

Good morning!  Like Gabriel, I’m writing this while I drink some coffee, but unlike Gabriel, I’m not reading the newspaper, because those have not travelled through time with us to the future.

Actually, that’s the only item so far that would be anachronistic in our world today.  No pay phones yet in this game, a staple in the 1980s-90s graphic adventure game world.

And we were able to receive a call at the payphone without everyone assuming we were a drug dealer.  My, how times have changed.