Tag: Westwood Studios

Simon the Sorcerer Review: When Greywolfe Met Pixels

So, I'm going to confess to something right away:

I was intensely worried about replaying this game, twenty years along.

I was worried about it because I'd played a bit [and got stuck] a couple of years ago.  And I remembered the conversation with the Billy Goats Gruff.

Essentially, it turns the fable into a commentary on worker's rights - and that - really - says all you need to know about the first game.  It's in a somewhat surreal and slightly twisted High Fantasy world. Read more

Farewell, Blizzard

Warning!  This is long and ranty and link heavy!  [Links will open in new tabs]

I remember Silicon and Synapse.  You might not, but I do.  They weren't big enough to work on their own projects, so they did ports of other games to various other consoles.  None of these ports were particularly big, but they established the company as detail-oriented and good at what they did.  And a key element from those days has stayed with Blizzard:  they know how to refine.

Which is at least some of what I want to talk about.  But the other thing I want to talk about is how distant Silicon and Synapse are from the Blizzard we have today and why - after almost twenty five years of playing Blizzard's games, I am going to slowly start winding down Blizzard projects I'm still pursuing. Read more