Author: emshortif

‘Mid the Sagebrush and the Cactus

Thoughts on Victor Gijsbers’ combat-and-conversation IF game ‘Mid the Sagebrush and the Cactus are over at Play This Thing. Short version: it does some really interesting things with the ATTACK system; though I didn’t mention this in the PTT review, I think Gijsbers achieved some of what Urban Conflict was trying for, in terms of creating a tense situation in which you have to judge carefully when to talk because the other person is an enemy. The writing itself didn’t always work as well for me. Full review (with spoilers past the midpoint) over here.

Homer in Silicon

…on Tiger Eye: Curse of the Riddle Box, a hidden object game based on a romance novel. It has its flaws, though interestingly (I thought) they were the opposite set of flaws from the ones in Love and Death: Bitten.

Clearly, though, there’s a bit of a trend in the hidden-object-romance-novel direction right now. One I haven’t played or reviewed, but whose title consistently cracks me up, is Harlequin’s Hidden Object of Desire, which presumably means that Fabio is hiding under the bed.