Myst Review: The Puzzle Game That Brought More PC Sales Than Any Marketing Campaign I’m reviewing Myst now because the rest of my crew spent three hours debating whether Myst is a “real” game or simply an interactive screensaver. Joe is adamant that Myst is merely nice pictures with obscure puzzles that don’t form coherent narratives. Samuel claims that the puzzle design is ingenious and revolutionary. John continues to drone on about how Amiga produced…
I’m Elena, and there is a major omission in what gaming historians say when discussing the ‘golden age’ of point-and-click adventure games. They always reference the American classics — the LucasArts comedies, the King’s Quest series from Sierra, possibly even the Myst series from Cyan if they’re feeling generous. What they always miss is that during the 1990s, some of the greatest adventure games ever made were developed by European companies who knew a few…
Right, let me tell you about Full Throttle, because this one’s been sitting in my cabinet for years and I still can’t work out whether Tim Schafer was a genius or completely mad when he made it. The team’s been arguing about this one for months. Joe reckons it’s the best LucasArts adventure game after Monkey Island. Tim thinks it’s overrated nonsense that wastes Roy Conrad’s brilliant voice work. I’m somewhere in the middle, but…
As soon as we released this ranking, we knew there would be total chaos. Over three weeks of heated Zoom calls; seventeen dropped connections when things got too personal; and Joe threatening to leave the group chat after we suggested that maybe LucasArts made some better games than Sierra. We argued about whether Marcus’ obsession with the technological innovations of adventure games should count against him; Elena fighting tooth and nail for UK developers to…
Right, let’s get this sorted. Tim’s been going on about Metal Gear Solid being the first game to introduce stealth gaming for months now, completely overlooking the fact that Tenchu got there first by a matter of weeks. Not by much, but first is first. Here’s why this ninja game deserves proper recognition for pulling off PlayStation stealth mechanics before Kojima did. Released in August 1998 (Metacritic), just a few weeks before Metal Gear Solid…
Elena here, and I want to address an issue that has bothered me for years. Anytime someone discusses the golden age of real-time strategy games, they immediately reference StarCraft or Age of Empires II. StarCraft and Age of Empires II are both outstanding games, but there is an omission in discussions about the golden age of RTS that is very significant: Command & Conquer: Red Alert did not simply exist during the golden age; it…
Hey Timothy here, I am going to tell you the truth right up front. As of 2026, I did not get to see the impact Quake had when it came out in 1996. I missed the jaw-dropping moment when gamers got to see real 3D environments versus the clever 2.5D tricks Doom did. I was not there for the hardware war it spawned or the explosion of modding that happened around it. But playing it…
Hi there, I am Elena, and I wanted to share with you, the game that disrupted my sleep schedule so much in the middle of 1996. It seems the entire team is arguing over which Streets of Rage game should be crowned king (Joe is relentless about his preference), meanwhile, I am chronicling the strategy game that perfected the addictive nature of digital games before we knew what to call it. Civilization II was released…
Right, Marcus here. Whilst the rest of the team argue over whether RollerCoaster Tycoon merits its legendary status (spoiler alert: yes, it absolutely does), I am taking a step back to evaluate the game that set the stage for all the theme park management games that followed. Prior to Chris Sawyer crafting his masterpiece in assembly code, Bullfrog Productions created Theme Park in 1994. In terms of technology, they accomplished something truly remarkable with the…
Management Simulators That Were Fun To Play Bullfrog Productions built management games that really worked. And the best example of that is Theme Hospital. Released in 1997 for Windows, this was a true management simulator. The company took the boring world of health care and made it laugh-out-loud funny without laughing at anyone. When Bullfrog made management sims, they kept them fun to play. Not many games have done that before or since. Other business…