This is the personal Web site of Robert Wm. Gomez. I am an artist, musician and nerd living in Chicago, Illinois who has been maintaining this site (in one form or another) since 1996. Enjoy your visit!
The unique twist that this hard-boiled private eye story brings is that it is centered around a religious cult that has linked itself to bootlegging and crime in a small Midwestern town. The main plot involves rescuing a girl from the cult but that, like many of the sub-plots (like the murder of a partner, jealous crime boss, etc.), tends to take a backseat to the S&M “Princess” who manipulates our hero. I especially like the various, ridiculous descriptions of meals that were ordered that usually involve something like: a bottle of bourbon, three pork chops, six hamburgers, and a dozen raw eggs.
I have been wanting to play this game for more than a decade ever since its demo appeared out of nowhere over a decade ago. A small, unknown company made a old-school FPS that looked just as good as the triple-A titles that where being released at the time. The company would eventually go on to release the excellent Shadow Warrior reboot games, all of which feature the same pure-shooter mechanics with a de-emphasis of story.
Hard Reset is all about shooting everything in sight including the various electrified and explosive wall decorations that fill the levels. It’s fast, fun, and dumb and doesn’t overstay its welcome. At this point I’m going to compare every FPS I play with Doom: Eternal. Hard Reset doesn’t quite match that game’s near-perfect game play but it does a good job getting that 90s shooter feel without having to lean in on a trendy, cliché 90s retro art style.
I was always under the impression that Unreal games continued to be released over the years, but, apparently, this the only mainline sequel. I can see why they stopped. For starters, this game is well-nigh unplayable if you don’t use a speed hack. The original was a fast and twitchy “boomer” shooter but this one plays like you’re traversing a mayonnaise planet.
Thankfully, increasing player speed is just a matter of editing a .ini file. Unfortunately the game remains pretty forgettable even after the fix. Unreal had a very distinct, otherworldly feel but, for the most part, the sequel is just standard space-marine stuff. It only starts to get close to the feeling of the first game in the final couple of levels: one in which you explore a weird alien structure, and the other that plays around with gravity. The remaining 80 percent of the game is just walking through military bases looking for the artifact contained in each.
There was a concerted effort to inject story and character development through conversations with your shipmates. They each force you to listen to their backstories through unskipable dialogue trees. This is not the best narrative device but it serves its purpose in forcing a tiny bit of drama during the final downer ending.The themes lean hard into the Star Trek II “needs of the many” trope, but seem to forget the whole bit about self-sacrifice. The game ends with you shooting an adversary in stomach all while your low poly character model grins his painted on smile. No chance for redemption. Just Blammo! and walk away.
The original Prince of Persia was ported to just about every computer system after its original Apple ][ release. Years ago I got through the first three or four levels on a System 7 Macintosh.but it always felt sluggish and unresponsive compared to most console platform games. I chalked that up to the Mac just being old and slow, but turns out it’s by design. Now, through emulation, I have been able to try many different versions and all of them feel about the same. I went with the Super Nintendo version because it is bigger, sound better, and has much improved graphics.
The controls are the biggest drawback of the game. It honestly feels broken because your actions need to be timed a split second earlier than you think. But eventually your brain and reflexes start to ease into the delayed rhythm. It’s only in the later boss sword fights that the timing issues began to seem genuinely unfair. There is a set amount of time to save the princess and as such, without the help of emulation save states, I would have surely given up and missed out on some great visual storytelling and level design.
With this I think I am done with the Culture series. I really enjoyed that last book in the series, but Use of Weapons is just a tedious slog. It’s structured around chapters that alternate between moving forwards and backwards through time. The jumps between the chapters are jarring and they usually end up killing any of the suspense and pacing that was being set up. All this builds to a twist ending that links the two story lines, but by that time I was so confused and bored that I didn’t care at all.
Cynthia Rothrock gets revenge on the man who killed her husband. There are a few good fights and I like Richard Norton as the bad guy but it’s full of corny scenes with her mute, Indonesian master and the his grandson. I guess I’m just used to the grander stunt-work in her Hong Kong efforts.
After playing the travesty that was Daikatana, I needed to remind myself that FPS games from that era could actually be good. I’m pretty sure I played Unreal in the early 2000s. I don’t know if I ever finished it though.
It’s definitely not the most story-rich game but Unreal makes up for it in fast and challenging combat, a large variety of weapons, tricky enemy AI, and visuals that hold up pretty well. This was the first time we ever saw dynamic lighting, reflections, and rippling water. The developers don’t waste any time getting to show you how awesome they were by opening the game with an impressive fly-through of a Na-Pali castle before you even click Start Game.
The levels vary between futuristic interiors, ancient temples, and vast outdoor spaces. The large areas can feel a bit empty but they offer a bit of a break after fighting through dark, tightly-spaced environments, seeking out secret levers and push buttons. There’s a level about an hour into the game that’s just awful with lots of swimming and backtracking that can make even the most dedicated players rage quit, but once you get past that hurdle the game opens up and becomes more manageable and fun. I even went on to play the expansion pack called Return to Na-Pali which puts more effort into telling a story via voice-over recaps at the end of every level.
John Romero has finally made me his bitch and it only cost 97¢. This game was widely panned when it came out and I always thought that it couldn’t possibly have been that bad. Well, I’m sorry to say, Daikatana is not a good game even when considering the context of when it came out. The fact that this shipped after Half-Life and Deus Ex adds even more weight to the case against it.
It was an ambitious game: a first-person shooter with a deep story and sidekick characters to help you along in your quest all played against the backdrop of time-travel and wildly varied environments. What we get are overly-long exposition dump cutscenes, constantly trying to keep your sidekicks from getting stuck on ladders, and, most egregiously, bland FPS shooting mechanics.
Thankfully there is a fan-made patch that helps out with some of the technical problems that still exist and also does away with some of the worst design decisions such as limiting saves based on collecting “save tokens” in the game. If you can make it to the first time-travel jump, it does get somewhat better, but the first episode is absolutely terrible. You are immediately (well after a 10 minute cutscene) dropped into a swamp in which you can be instantly killed by well-camouflaged mosquitos and frogs. I powered through but I can’t say it was worth it.
From the intense non-stop first-person action of demon hordes, to the intense non-stop first-person action of Russian fishmongers! The first Metro game was a just-ok first person shooter with a limited palette of monsters, environments, and, yes, colors.
The second game in the series adds a bit more color and character to the world of post-apocalyptic subway tunnels but never quite hits the mark in terms of game-play. Much of the Metro Last Light borders on being a “walking simulator” as a good chunk of the game is devoted to moving through areas as plot exposition is dumped on the player. Memorable action set-pieces are few and far between.
At times it’s almost a colorful game!
Apparently you are rewarded for non-lethal kills and interacting with NPCs, but this is not telegraphed at all. I spent most of the stealth portions of the game shooting enemies point blank with a silenced pistol. As a result I got the lesser game ending, but at least I got to off a bunch of commies and neo-Nazis along the way.
I didn’t hate the game, but in the wake of Doom: Eternal I found that there was more to be desired. Mainly, a chainsaw.
The follow-up to 2016’s Doom reboot is an absolute blast featuring some of the most fluid FPS mechanics ever implemented. Narrative takes a backseat to action set pieces in which you must keep moving and shooting. The primary challenge beyond FPS aiming skill is being able to manage when you perform “glory kills” to replenish your health and when you chainsaw fodder enemies to gather ammo. This is the closest thing you can get to a 3-D version of Robotron 2084 and that’s some of the highest praise a game can get.
