Recent reviews by Ben McLean

There is an underlying philosophical message in the story of Portal which I don't think very many people realize: the Portal universe is a satire on Scientism. Aperture Science represents what happens when we decide to treat human beings strictly from a scientific perspective, disregarding the human perspective. Everything, from the distinctly sterline dystopian anti-human environment to the half-insane rebellion of the Ratman and especially the dark humor of Glados, reinforces this central theme of the story. Ultimately, disregarding the human perspective to only consider the scientific perspective will destroy the moral conscience of any humans who do this and lead them to force this on others as well, just as Glados forces Chell to destroy the Companion Cube. (which I think represents the consicence) Portal 2's lack of direct attention to this theme led to it feeling much less cohesive than the original.

Science is no good to us without ethics. We should always treat people as people first, not just as test subjects.

SEGA is selling ROMs here which you can use in any emulator you want. YOU ARE OBLIGATED TO BUY THIS ASAP.

This has some actual Atari ROMs which you can extract and play on your own emulator(s) if you want. Buy it.

This gives you the 1990s Christian-themed video games by Wisdom Tree in a DOSBOX wrapper. Super 3D Noah's Ark is not included because it is on Steam as a separate product. This release is of interest to enthusiasts in studying video game history and depictions of Christianity in late 20th century Western popular culture and it is nostalgia bait for anyone who remembers these games from their day. The gameplay does not stand out as especially great, but some of the included games (like Joshua and Spiritual Warfare) manage to avoid being completely bad.

The most remarkable thing about these games is how they were released on the NES and Gameboy unlicensed by Nintendo in order to circumvent not only Nintendo's anti-competitive DRM (Digiital Restrictions Management) but also Nintendo's anti-religious censorship policy. Ever heard of banned books? These are banned games. This is something Nintendo did not want you to play.

However, only the MS-DOS versions are included here, which is sad because there are NES, Gameboy and Sega Genesis versions of these which you could totally play on your own emulators and flash carts if only they included the ROMs but they haven't. So you can still only play them that way if you are a dirty pirate-sinner. (I recommend the Sega Genesis versions personally)

Overall, this release needs a little more love and attention than it has thus far received. It should have extras included like scans of the original manuals, box art, TV commercials and historical information which just isn't here. Wisdom Tree cracked their own DRM so that you don't have to deal with that nonsense, but they've included neither the uncracked floppy disk images of the original releases for historical reference (I don't remember what their DRM was even like) nor DRM-free floppy disk installers for those who want to run these on genuine vintage hardware.

I'm not even sure DOSBOX is running these at the proper speed. Alot of things feel like they're missing. So, while Wisdom Tree has saved these titles from being considered abandonware (Why isn't "Captain Bible in Dome of Darkness" on Steam!?) and we should respect that, it hasn't really stepped up its game for attracting its niche audience of Christian retrogaming enthusiasts either.

It has John Delancie (Q from Star Trek) and it is based on Portal. Therefore, the unalterable laws of the Universe dictate that I must recommend it and you must paly it. In this matter, at least, we definitely have no free will. Looks like predestination and determinism are true after all. The power of Q compels you.

However, the attempts at humor in this game kind of fall flat, in the same way my first paragraph did. Be prepared for Delancie's lines to seem really lame and cheesy in comparison to the dark humor of GlaDOS. They're kind of loldeep. Still, the gameplay is fun and it makes you think and it has John Delancie. So don't just play it. Paly it.

SUPER KEEN RECOMMEND!! This is the update that all the Commander Keen games deserve. Keen Dreams looks and plays way better than ever before in widescreen. Shame on id Software for not giving all the other Commander Keen games a modern update like this.

BTW, Windows 10 users may need to disable the Steam overlay in order to play this. If you get a black screen, that's why.

Listen to "The Night Santa Went Crazy" by Weird Al Yankovic before deciding whether or not to play this.

This is a baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad game.

(Later edit) I believe that the subtle nuances in the humor of my review have eluded most readers. Allow me to explain. My review merely says, "This is a game." but pauses mid-sentence to bleat like a goat. Perhaps this type of pun only works when spoken aloud. Oh well.

Button Pushing Simulator 2016. Neat to think about from the perspective of math, psychology and game design, but for the love of God, do not try it if you aren't looking at it for that reason.

I should probably mention that my large playtime is comes in part from leaving it on while I wasn't there.

Retro City Rampage is pretty much what I'd hold up as the ideal that all indie games should aspire to be like. Some parts are much better than others, but most of it is really awesome.

The one major drawback I see with it is it's free roam mode. This mode feels limited in what you can do. You can do things to get money but there's ultimately nothing to buy. Structuring this mode a little differently could have made it more engaging.