The First True Interactive Drama

For decades, true interactive fiction--an application in which characters' responses to a player's input are determined algorithmically rather than via prescripted sequences, and in which valid stories emerge regardless of player action--has been a holy grail for AI researchers, digital artists, and game developers alike.

Most attempts to solve the problem have been "top down," that is, attempting to handle all sorts of stories, all sorts of personalities, and all sorts of potential actions. The results have generally been never more than mildly interesting.

Andy Stern and Michael Mateas, however, chose to try to solve a specific problem, rather than the general one. They chose a story with one setting (an apartment), two NPCs (a husband and wife), one basic conflict (their marriage is on the rocks), and a limited time frame (you are a friend of the family, visiting them over the course of an evening). By narrowing the focus this way, they were actually to solve the problem. Not, to be sure, in a way that solves the general problem--but in a way that makes of Façade the first really interesting work of true interative fiction.

No technological glitch could lure people from what is the heart of video games: a good gameplay.

...as the Fast Lane Carnage manual says. Mais oui, Comrade Millet.

From this, you may conclude the developer's English is not so good--and also, to be sure, that the aesthetic of the game is one that Manifestoites will find wholly sympathetic. But for all that--this is a very French game.

Not French as in the France of the Guide Michelin, the Rive Gauche, or Jacques Chirac. Rather, the France of Mobius, Metal Hurlant and the bandes dessinee, the gritty, adult French comics that are as alien to the American form as Japanese manga; of the bizarre Franco-Algerian slang of the French underworld; of the polar noir, movies even bleaker and more brutal than their American counterparts.

Game Tunnel's 2006 RPG of the Year

FastCrawl is what the name suggests: a quick-playing dungeon crawler, perfect for a way to kill your lunch hour. One of the parameters you set at game-start, in fact, is whether you want a short, medium, or long game; short ones last about 30 minutes, while long ones last perhaps an hour.

The gameplay is Rogue-like, except that this is, of course, a game with an intuitive 2D interface with decent graphics, playable almost entirely with a mouse--almost like a NetHack designed for the casual game crowd. Dungeons, opponents, and items are randomly generated each time; each turn consumes a unit of supply, and while you can find more in the dungeon, the net effect is to limit the length of gameplay. And unlike most Rogue-likes, you control a party of characters instead of a single one. All in all, a nice, fast-playing hack'n'slash experience.

Fastlane Pinball is the latest game from Framework Studios. Fastlane Pinball is a fun-filled, action-packed, lightning-fast pinball game. Once you've seen the stunning graphics you'll wonder how you ever did without this gem in your pinball collection.

You play Michael James Smith who carries the burden of knowing how and when the world will come to an end. The vision you had was so clear, it just could not be read in any other way than the world’s demise.

Interactive Novel with Puzzles

Georgina Okerson, creator of Cute Knight returns with Fatal Hearts, a charmingly quirky adventure game, of a sort, featuring a teen girl protagonist and a chilling set of murders. Featuring anime-inspired art and teenage angst in a horror story, Fatal Hearts has several different endings -- different enough that you'll want to play more than once to explore the different outcomes -- along with puzzle mini-games and a well-written story.

It's not a point-and-click adventure game in the usual style; indeed, it's more of an interactive graphic novel with puzzle-game aspects. As such, it's very accessible even to adventure game novices.

RTS Meets Abstract Strategy

The fantasy behind Firewall is that you are controlling a force of 'defensive' robots fighting an invasion of viruses. In practice, the "viruses" are opposing teams of robots--some that build posts that "control sections of memory" (squares on a grid), and some that are offensive or defensive units. In other words, the fantasy is largely irrelevant, and in essence, this is a Chess-like game of abstract strategy--if Chess were real-time, of course..

Manage Your Way to the Superbowl

As with Sports Mogul's other games, Football Manager places you not on the field, but in the clubhouse, building your team, controlling its roster and finances. In other words, it's a game for those at least as interested in player stats and what goes on behind the scenes in football than in play a high-poly count recreation of on-the-field play.

Cheerful, Fast-Playing Farm Tycoon

Little sheep wander around going 'baa,' you shear them when they grow wool; pigs snort around and you butcher them when they're fat--but if you don't provide enough slops, they turn the grass the sheep eat into mud.

Funky Farm is a fast-playing, light little sim/tycoon game that's surprisingly fun given its simplicity. And simple it is; your eight year-old will probably enjoy it as much as you (some reading is required). Don't expect a challenging simulation, but if a light-hearted, fast-playing little tycoon game sounds like a good way to kill some time, it's up your alley.