The first five years of the PlayStation were something of a wild west for game design. Video games had made a huge jump when the console was released in 1994, allowing for innovation and creative choices to flourish.
Titles such as Tekken, Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo, Resident Evil, Spyro and Tomb Raider were all advancing the medium in their respective genres, giving gamers a new and exciting experience that could only be imagined up until that point.
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But between the pillars of the console, some games did things weird enough to be noticed and appreciated. Weird in the sense that they were just too goofy, eccentric or bizarre.
One such title is MediEvil, a hack-and-slash fantasy game developed by SCE Studio Cambridge and released in October 1998. The game follows the slain knight Sir Daniel Fortesque after he is resurrected by an evil wizard named Zarok.
Fortesque was the first soldier to be killed on the battlefield in the war against the evil horde of Zarok, being shot in the eye and dying immediately. Despite his failure, he is hailed a hero and buried in his battle armour, which he wears after being resurrected as a skeleton.
The game received a remaster in 2019, but what’s it like playing the original game today?
Joyfully macabre
Its description and story might evoke images of scary ghouls and a gruesome reanimated body, but it is nothing like that. Presented in a family-friendly tone, the game is quite whimsical and very witty with its comedy.
At every stage, Fortesque receives guidance and quips from faces on the walls that don’t hold back in both embarrassing and encouraging our hero. His ambition is to redeem himself and his failure on the field of battle, but no one seems to treat his death as badly as he does.
The best thing about Fortesque as a protagonist is his earnestness and eagerness. As players push through every level, giving him a skill boost and getting him closer to his goal, there’s genuine excitement and satisfaction felt for the knight.
Nostalgic but archaic
MediEvil came out during a time in which whimsical gothic television shows and films were all the rage. Fans tuned in to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Charmed, enjoyed films like Practical Magic and Hocus Pocus and listened to music by the Cranberries and Stevie Nicks.
The game fits right in with this aesthetic, with stages set in graveyards while being attacked by enemies ranging from zombies to little gnomes. Accented with haunting orchestral music befitting the setting but keeping things light and never serious.
And while playing the game is a fun experience even today, the controls do take some time to get used to. With every stage, it becomes clearer why a remaster was necessary for modern gaming standards.
The remaster does do a good job of reinvigorating the experience but does lose some of the deep nostalgic effect the original provides.
Verdict
It’s hard to describe how magnificent some of these games seemed when played first in the late 1990s. They will always deliver a memorable experience that modern gaming is always trying to do for new generations.
MediEvil is not a huge title but has become a cult favourite over the years, with many recalling playing it on release and enjoying it thoroughly. I had forgotten about it until it arrived on the PlayStation 5’s classic games library last month.
But starting it up, I started to remember that I did indeed play it way back when even remembering the circumstances and the day that happened. Not many games can do that, and MediEvil had to be special enough to be memorable and it was.
ILT20%20UAE%20stars
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RESULTS
Dubai Kahayla Classic – Group 1 (PA) $750,000 (Dirt) 2,000m
Winner: Deryan, Ioritz Mendizabal (jockey), Didier Guillemin (trainer).
Godolphin Mile – Group 2 (TB) $750,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Secret Ambition, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar
Dubai Gold Cup – Group 2 (TB) $750,000 (Turf) 3,200m
Winner: Subjectivist, Joe Fanning, Mark Johnston
Al Quoz Sprint – Group 1 (TB) $1million (T) 1,200m
Winner: Extravagant Kid, Ryan Moore, Brendan Walsh
UAE Derby – Group 2 (TB) $750,000 (D) 1,900m
Winner: Rebel’s Romance, William Buick, Charlie Appleby
Dubai Golden Shaheen – Group 1 (TB) $1.5million (D) 1,200m
Winner: Zenden, Antonio Fresu, Carlos David
Dubai Turf – Group 1 (TB) $4million (T) 1,800m
Winner: Lord North, Frankie Dettori, John Gosden
Dubai Sheema Classic – Group 1 (TB) $5million (T) 2,410m
Winner: Mishriff, John Egan, John Gosden
The lowdown
Bohemian Rhapsody
Director: Bryan Singer
Starring: Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee
Rating: 3/5
What went into the film
25 visual effects (VFX) studios
2,150 VFX shots in a film with 2,500 shots
1,000 VFX artists
3,000 technicians
10 Concept artists, 25 3D designers
New sound technology, named 4D SRL
Ruwais timeline
1971 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company established
1980 Ruwais Housing Complex built, located 10 kilometres away from industrial plants
1982 120,000 bpd capacity Ruwais refinery complex officially inaugurated by the founder of the UAE Sheikh Zayed
1984 Second phase of Ruwais Housing Complex built. Today the 7,000-unit complex houses some 24,000 people.
1985 The refinery is expanded with the commissioning of a 27,000 b/d hydro cracker complex
2009 Plans announced to build $1.2 billion fertilizer plant in Ruwais, producing urea
2010 Adnoc awards $10bn contracts for expansion of Ruwais refinery, to double capacity from 415,000 bpd
2014 Ruwais 261-outlet shopping mall opens
2014 Production starts at newly expanded Ruwais refinery, providing jet fuel and diesel and allowing the UAE to be self-sufficient for petrol supplies
2014 Etihad Rail begins transportation of sulphur from Shah and Habshan to Ruwais for export
2017 Aldar Academies to operate Adnoc’s schools including in Ruwais from September. Eight schools operate in total within the housing complex.
2018 Adnoc announces plans to invest $3.1 billion on upgrading its Ruwais refinery
2018 NMC Healthcare selected to manage operations of Ruwais Hospital
2018 Adnoc announces new downstream strategy at event in Abu Dhabi on May 13
Source: The National
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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