Last time, you decided that highlighted interactive objects are better than retrievable reusable ammo. I understand why you decided that. Your fondness for this thing makes perfect sense. It is very helpful. An immensely practical thing. And still... ah, we must move on. This week, I ask you to pick between two right different right-clickings. What's better: drawing Frog Detective's magnifying glass or drawing Blade Runner's gun?
]]>You can once again buy the fan-created ScummVM release of 1997's Blade Runner adventure game via GOG. The fan version was removed from the store a little over a week ago when Nightdive Studios released their own Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition, then swiftly bundled together with that remaster when people complained.
]]>Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition launched this week, upping the resolution and increasing the framerate of Westwood's ancient adventure game in ways that make it look consistently worse than the original. If you bought the game on GOG, you could at least switch over to the superior ScummVM release, but not on Steam... Until earlier today, when Blade Runner Classic was added to the Steam version, too.
]]>There are two reasons to consider playing the new 'Enhanced Edition' of Blade Runner over the version which hit GOG in 2019: 1) it has controller support; 2) it's on consoles. Beyond that, Nightdive's remastering has made Westwood's 1997 adventure game look notably uglier and you'd be better off with GOG's ScummVM version. The Enhanced Edition is out today and I've been flicking back and forth between the two versions, tutting. The Enhanced Edition still looks like a 25-year-old game, only now it looks 25 years old, blurry, and unlike itself.
]]>Now that Cyberpunk 2077 is delayed again until December 10th, what are you to do? You've grown a lurid blue mohawk, your leather jacket is almost worn in, and your prescription mirrorshades are ready for collection at Specsavers - but for what? You might as well use this time to explore all games cyberpunky, from edgy and nihilistic griping about how the future sucks to wacky cyberjapes that make you wanna jump up and shout HACK THE PLANET. I have some recommendations.
]]>Nightdive's remaster of Westwood's great Blade Runner adventure game will not launch this year after all. Turns out, reverse-engineering a game to rebuild it in a whole new engine without access to the original assets is a bit of work. I still don't see why they're putting this much effort into it when a perfectly fine version is available on GOG, running in ScummVM. Especially when the first bit Nightdive that showed, an update version of the opening cutscene, looked worse than the original.
]]>Typical: you wait decades for a release of Westwood's Blade Runner game then two come along at once. The original 1997 adventure game popped up on GOG in December, powered by ScummVM, and now Nightdive Studios have announced an Enhanced Edition. They say they'll update character models, upscale cutscenes, and improve the technical trimmings.
]]>Today in News I Thought I Might Never Write And Am Wholly Delighted To, we can now easily buy Westwood's 1997 Blade Runner adventure game. GOG, the virtuous vendor of vintage video games, have somehow untangled the rights and are selling it. Right now. For £7. I have already bought it and started the download. Blade Runner is one of the very rare decent movie tie-in games and I remember it fondly. I hope so much that I am not crushed.
]]>Westwood's 1997 Blade Runner, still the best video game adaptation of a movie, is now a whole lot easier to play on a modern PC. Wonderful adventure game platform ScummVM has officially added support for Blade Runner after four months of public testing. Previously, the best hope was fan-made patches which worked for many but were crashy for me. Maybe now publishers will resolve the rights issues plaguing this game and arrange a digital re-release. I gave my CDs away a few years back after losing hope and damn it, I would buy it again now.
]]>One of the great lost adventure game treasures of the 90s, Westwood's Blade Runner, is a little more found now that ScummVM is adding support to play it easily on modern systems. The 1997 adventure game from the Command & Conquer studio, which runs parallel to the movie Blade Runner, has been unplayable-ish for many years. It was the very last CD game I held onto, until I discovered even with fixes it'd crash at the end of the first act. Well! Here comes ScummVM support, almost ready to let us slam in the data files and go. Now all we need is a downloadable re-release, eh GOG? Steam? Eh?
]]>The cyberpunk apartment of Blade Runner’s robot-killer Rick Deckard has been recreated as a walking sim, Blade Runner 9732. We told you about it before but it’s now on Steam, playable with a Vive VR headset (or without). Alice has already observed that Deckard enjoys the pungent odour of Axe and L’Oreal products, but what else can we learn about the extra-judicial android murderer by nosying through his home? Quite a lot.
]]>If you fancy whooshing to the impossibly far-off year of 2019 to revisit Blade Runner's rainy Los Angeles, have a gander at the free beta of Blade Runner 9732. It's a fan-made "virtual tour" of spacecop Rick Deckard's apartment, faithfully recreating everything from his armchairs and kitchen appliances through to his ESPER machine and the view from his balcony. While it does take a few questionable creative leaps to fill in gaps (who knew Ricky D used Axe deodorant?), I have enjoyed pottering around. BR 9732 is due to officially launch in a few days but I would not be surprised if lawyers retire the project, so maybe give its free beta a go now?
]]>Rather than marvel at digital houses we couldn't even dream of owning an armoire to put in IRL, let alone the whole building, we've turned our attention to the world of videogame apartments. These chunks of partitioned living are often just modular, nondescript spaces designed to house clues or bolster the sense of people living in a city, but occasionally there are apartments which offer up a real sense of their owner's character or palatial penthouses which ooze nouveau riche luxury.
]]>Show me a game in a neon-lit futurecity and I'm interested. Toss in command line-based hacking and I'll try to raise one eyebrow (nnnope still can't do it). Say you're also inspired by Westwood's ace Blade Runner game and ah, heck, I may well post it on RPS. Hullo there, Ama's Lullaby [Kickstarter page]! It's an upcoming adventure game starring a teen settler on an offworld colony established by a caretaker AI, where events might be taking a funny turn. So off she goes, chatting, investigating, puzzle-solving, and hacking. It's still early days but I live in cyberhope.
]]>I had twin criteria for this. The first was 'is it a decent game?' and the second 'does it meaningfully evoke the spirit, themes or characters of the movie in addition to having Quite Good Guns And Graphics?' The second saw quite a few games which would otherwise qualify ruled out. This year's Mad Max, for instance, was an agreeable murder-romp but it's much harder to argue that it nails the desperation or oddness of the films it's based on. Star Wars: Battlefront, meanwhile, is an OK online shooter with marvellous graphics, but it's too mechanical to 'feel' like Star Wars once you get beyond the spectacular presentation. Ah, 'feel'. That's the thing, isn't it? Does a movie game make you feel like you're a part of that movie's wider world, or is it just wearing its skin?
]]>"What is walking and do walking simulators simulate it?" sounds like the sort of toss I'd open a post with. "And if a walking simulator isn't simulating walking, can a game simulate a walking simulator without walking at all?" Good. Great job, Alice.
Alternatively, I could say that if you click on through, you can watch a peaceful and pleasant video with nine minutes of Ray McCoy standing on his balcony listening to a chill Vangelis cover in Westwood's old Blade Runner game. On this night of nights, I think you might like it.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.
It feels like stepping into Ridley Scott's film. Sets and touchstones are lovingly recreated. Machinery clicks, beeps, and wheezes exactly as you'd expect. The atmosphere is malevolent, and you're quickly in over your head. But wait, I say as if the headline and screenshot haven't made this abundantly clear, I'm talking about Blade Runner, not Alien: Isolation. Westwood's 1997 adventure game is a bit of a mess, but it's a special one.
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.png?width=1200&height=630&fit=crop&enable=upscale&auto=webp "שחרורו של Assassin's Creed Shadows נדחה למרץ כאשר מועצת המנהלים של Ubisoft שוקל מכירת חברה")