Old Game Tuesday - Oni
Apr 15, 2008 Console Games, PC Games
Programming Note: I’m looking to make this a regular feature, as I am constantly revisiting older games, and many of those are games that maybe were overlooked for some reason. We’ve also been cleaning quite a bit so I’ve rediscovered a bunch of lost favorites. If anyone has any suggestions (or wants to guest review an ‘older’ game) let me know.
I bought Oni a bit after it was released, although I had been interested in it right off the bat. I think I got it in a two pack with Rune. Anyway, Oni is a third-person action game that focuses on melee combat. There are weapons which can help in a pinch, but the real draw was the martial-arts combat. The design is obviously anime-inspired, what with the purple-haired heroine named Konoko. The game is set in a near-future timeline where a world government is in place, and you are a new agent for the ‘Technological Crimes Task Force’, or TCTF. You progress through missions taking on organized crime and investigating your origins.
What I like about Oni is the melee combat. It’s a pretty simple system of punches and kicks, with some short combos for extra oomph. It’s good enough to produce in me what I call the Lightsaber effect - where I want to use that combat mode exclusively, even though there are perhaps better weapon choices for a given situation. There is a definite visceral thrill to successfully sneaking up on a guard and executing a back-breaker compared to just shooting them from cover.
The game does suffer from some of the same issues as many older games in the genre, namely that many of the levels (while nicely laid out and expansive) are mostly filled with crates. The voice-overs are cheesy (and some overlong, looking at you Shinatama) but the cheesiness fits with the anime style. There’s no multiplayer, though it was tried and dropped. I’ve seen fan sites out there where Oni fans are trying to resurrect it, though. For the most part, the game was a victim of Bungie getting bought by Microsoft, as the development and release of Oni happened right in the middle of that. Sort of got lost in the shuffle.
If you can still find it, Oni is a fun experience that is one of the few games of that era I wanted to experience again. Late Edit: also available for PlayStation 2 and Mac. Almost forgot to mention that.
Tags: bungie, mac, mac games, microsoft, ogt, oni, pc games, pc gaming
iPhone SDK Doesn’t Suck
Mar 6, 2008 Gadgets, Media, PC Games
Gizmodo has a roundup of their iPhone SDK coverage here, but the thing that jumped out at me (being a huge fan of Will Wright) is that the iPhone will have the full-blown version of Spore available for it. Other highlights include VOIP via WiFi and an AIM client, still no Flash though. iPod Touch users have to pay again, too.
Tags: aim, apple, games, gaming, gizmodo, iphone, mac, spore, will wright
Lifehack Your Leopard Mac
Jan 14, 2008 Software
I know I have at least a few Mac readers based on my site stats, so this one’s for you. Lifehacker has a conglomeration of tweaks for Mac OS X Leopard, from killing the reflectivity and transparency of the Dock, to customizing Quick Look and Time Machine. Take a look, they may have a solution if there are any annoyances you have with your new OS.
Tags: leopard, lifehacker, mac, mac os x, macintosh, Software
Lifehacker’s Top 10 Video Rippers, Encoders and Converters
Lifehacker has posted a Top 10 list for Video ripping, encoding and converting. Mostly freeware and open source software, some of which work for Linux and Mac along with Windows. If you wanted some new software to convert your pr0n–er, instructional videos to a format that fits on your iPod or PSP, take a look.
Tags: converter, encoder, lifehacker, linux, mac, ripper, ubuntu, video, windows
GIMP 2.4 Released
Lots of neat new features from the sound of it, too. Hit up the GIMP web site for details, and to ooh and ahh at their new design.
