So.....

Yes. I have ignored this blog lately. That's 'cause I just got my hands on the Myst series. I don't know why I ignored it in the past, but as soon as I got them, I played al 3 in order, and won them with a minimal use of a walkthrough. (Which basically just was used to confirm I was on the right track.) I advise not using one at all. Just be more carefull and pay closer attention to the details than I did.

Myst is amazingly fun. Riven was a lot harder, and Exile was a bit more like the first than the second. I'm interested in the 4th, Uru, but am not sure how the 3rd person system will work out. I'm slow to accept change, I suppose. I approach change with some apprehension and a hatchet, just in case.

The Myst series captures the whim and surrealism that I adore. The underlying premise is that you explore worlds (called Ages) that other people have created. Each is unpredible, and full of puzzles.

I think (looking back) that each Age follows the rules defined in our own world, which is handy, since the game could be impossibly difficult if the laws of physics changed with each Age, but that could also increase the awe factor by several orders of magnitude.

I have a streak of engineers tenacity about me, so even when I stopped playing the game, I still struggled with the problems presented. At meals, in bed, at the store, or where ever, I would stop and say "If I aimed the thingie at the... no, I FREAKIN' tried that! TWICE." And I would plunge back into the abyss of insanity.

Nearly any game or movie would get a good rating from me if they manage to demonstrate a certain amount of creativity which must remain in rigidly defined areas of good taste and whatnot. Myst scores high.