Although Crysis is on the horizon, I've pretty much lost faith in PC gaming. In the days of Doom, Quake and Unreal, top-end PCs (and Mac's) could easily out-perform the current crop of games consoles and allowed for amazing technological advances in games far before similar games were available on other consoles. While this is still the case to an extent, the gap in power seems to have dramatically shrunk. With Microsoft aiming most of their gaming power at the Xbox, the PC has fallen behind quite a lot.The last PC game I bought was Quake 4, which I've probably played for about three or four hours. It's available on the Xbox 360 too and it's a bit lame. Especially given the Quake legacy. So I give up on PC gaming altogether. However, I hadn't really given time to freeware things, made not by EA or Ubisoft but by people in their bedrooms. Of course, there's LOADS of shit. But it's a bit like bedroom musician's innit? You don't have the labels or publishers telling you which are 'quality', BUT you could always stumble across some undiscovered gem.
Knytt is one of those gems. It's a simple platform game for Windows that you don't even have to install. It's got cuteness by the bucket-load and features basic but perfectly fitting music to accompany the Knytt as he/she travels through an alien planet looking for spaceship pieces. I really can't praise the game enough. It's got frequent save slots so there's no frustration at death and it's perfect for a little go every now and then. The atmosphere is superb. You really feel the isolation of being on a strange planet, even if your character is made up of about fifty pixels.
And remember, Knytt is FREE. It's freeware, so there's no cost for downloading it. People have already made mods for the game, which you can get from the 'official' site. I haven't tried them yet, because I'm still thoroughly enjoying the original game.
So if you've got a Windows machine, go and get it! I guarantee you'll fall in love with the Knytt and his alien planet. :-)
