Potential of Monkey Island's Return

Return to Monkey Island Announcement. Taken from YouTube.

It was just another day in my scuffed routine. I finished all copywriting business I had at that point of time and decided to finally catch some gaming news and other nonsense like social media since I didn't look at them for two days straight. Much to my surprise, I've witnessed the great news regarding the return of Monkey Island series. Called Return to Monkey Island! Even though my experience with it so far is limited to great RetroAhoy video and listening to music for the first two games, I am pretty existed about it.

Probably the reason for it the return of Ron Gilbert, one of the original game directors of the series, and more people involved in previous installments like Dave Grossman. Such turn of events is usually a good sign in terms of how new game is going to turn out, resulting in aforementioned excitement and high hopes. As for me, I'll just throw around some guesses about this new Monkey Island game and potential details of its development.

Charming Rest of "Cannon Fodder" Games

Cannon Fodder (Amiga) Screenshot. Taken from MobyGames.

In my previous attempts to cover older games that's not particularly popular nowadays, I've remained strictly within MS-DOS & Windows territory when it comes to PC titles. Now I would like to change that by expanding my scope for one more family of computers. Thanks to one good friend of mine and my desire to further explore the wonderful world of retro games, I've finally witnessed the greatness of Amiga with its multimedia capabilities.

However, I didn't knew where to start until I recalled the Cannon Fodder series. Seeing Russian Geek's reviews of its games was probably the first time I took a proper look at Amiga titles, besides the third one. As before, I would go over the things that interested me in the 2/3 of Cannon Fodder series, why the last title of the series isn't included there and what could be the current status of this franchise.

Don't Forget the "Abuse" Game

Abuse Screenshot Promo. Taken from MobyGames.

Almost everyone probably had that moment when they couldn't recall a specific game. Either they've seen some gameplay of it, screenshots and overheard any kind of mention of it, but title's name got lost in their memory one way or the other (maybe they just didn't hear it in the first place). That was the case for me with Abuse: an old "run and gun" game from February 1996. Not only it has an interesting name, but as a whole that title seemed pretty curious to me.

So I've picked it as another "exhibit" for a post where I briefly talk about the game itself and its current status in the industry. Not only to show off Abuse to a few random readers, but so I can remember the game's name... Seriously, it was kind of hard to come up with a title for this "article". It was either something "too edgy" or "too save".

A Brief History of iQue Brand

Bland iQue Player Thumbnail. Based on Wikipedia's material.

Gaming industry is no stranger for copycats. Many individuals and groups in certain regions of the world dabbled on bringing specific consoles and games to their market in one way or the other. It could be done via official partnership with big company or not so official "borrowing" of the preferred system. There are many examples of that (probably more than I'm currently aware of), but I would like to start with one interesting brand I've somewhat interacted with personally back in "better times of my childhood".

Although that experience was limited to just one specific handheld, I would like to direct more focus on more unique exhibit of that peculiar company that managed to kind of stick around to this very day. Perhaps not in a way it operated before, but I will get to that.

March 2022 Update

Improvised "Hall Update" Thumbnail.

I'm not really sure where to start with this one. At this point of time. Previous update was full of hope and inspiration to keep going, to revitalize this blog. I hoped to gather enough courage and determination for great purposes with little chances for success, but worth giving them a try due to where they can lead to in case of success. The future was bright. The dream was alive. The hope was growing. More than a week after February's "report", everything changed in ways I never even imaged.

"Eternity's End": Empty Inside

"Eternity's End" Key Art.

We have reached the end of this saddening path, it seems. Life goes on, for better or worse, and so does World of Warcraft with its "popular" Shadowlands expansion. Similarly to my Chains of Domination coverage, I plan to glaze over some of its key narrative points to simply state an obvious fact of how bad things really are. I'm holding on to this personal bargain to go all the way until the conclusion of all this, and soon it shall be fulfilled.

It's rather curious to see the public transformation in terms of how they view this chapter of Warcraft. The vast majority of people are negative when it comes to Shadowlands for many good reasons, even though here I mostly "bother" with story/lore side of things. Not that it would be new or surprising to you no matter how good you're informed whenever through my posts or other means. Well, I suppose we should get it over with. Don't we?

Potential Future of Battle.net Launcher

Minecraft, Bethesda & Battle.net Launcher Icons.

With the debut of Battle.net Launcher through Open Beta on August 2013, young me "foresaw" the rise of individual launcher from other companies similar to Origin and Ubisoft Connect (at the time known as Uplay). This is a hot topic in the minds of many people for many good reasons, which can warrant a post of its own. Instead, I would like to look back at recent developments surrouding two launchers from the companies owned by Microsoft and what direction Battle.net can take once Activision Blizzard's deal will be finalized.