Samorost: still the best little game on the net

I want to introduce you all to a great little indie game called Samorost. It's actually been around for years, but it's still as playable now as it was when Amanita Design put it out in 2003. For online games, six years is long, long time, but the game that taught the world that art and fun can come together will still give you 30 minutes of good play.

Samorost is a puzzle game in which you have to help a gnome save his home from being destroyed. At each stage of the game you click on the right spot on the screen to help the gnome continue on his mission.

Funky ambient music and natural sounds accompany you as you move through beautiful scenes made with close-up photographs of plants and natural environments.
You can see how each piece of artwork has been lovingly made.

They have more at Amanita Design, so you don’t have to stop with Samorost 1. There’s a sequel, Samorost 2, and if you’re up for a challenge, try Questionaut. Check out the game here: http://amanita-design.net/samorost-1/.

If you get stuck and need directions to solve the game, send me an email.

vocabulary
indie = independent studio, a small film, music, or game company that is concerned more about making good products than making money.
it's been around = it has existed
playable = fun or easy to play

put it out = put it on the market; made it available

gnome = a small person, the character in this story
funky = cool in an unusual way
ambient music = music that plays in the background

accompany you = go with you

to be up for X = to want to do X

12 Monkeys

There are some films you watch and soon forget, some that you rent two or three times, and some that you watch so many times you have to own them. If you’re a fan of the dark side of science fiction, 12 Monkeys is one of those films you’ll need for your collection. The film stars Bruce Willis as James Cole, a prisoner from a grim future who has volunteered to travel backwards in time to the year 1995. That’s when a mysterious disease destroyed humanity and forced everyone to live underground. His mission is to discover how who created the disease and stop them.

Unfortunately for Cole, the science of the future is not perfect. The scientists accidentally send him too far back in time, to the year 1990. He is captured by the police, who think his is crazy because he says he’s from the future. He is taken to an insane asylum where he meets a mentally ill but likable young man named Jeffery Goines, played by Brad Pitt. He also meets the psychiatrist Dr. Railley (Madeline Stowe) who eventually realizes that Cole is telling the truth. But Cole is disappears back to the future, is interrogated, and is sent back in time again -this time to the 1914! Finally he is returned to the “correct” time of 1995, where he once again meets the still-crazy Goines and Dr. Railley. He teams up with her and they try to discover how the virus started.

I won’t write more about the plot, as I don’t want to spoil the film for anyone who hasn’t seen it, except to say that the story is dark and psychologically frightening. Sometimes Cole can’t tell if he is sane, and neither can we. The movie is a great mess, jumping back and forth in time and confusing to everyone, and that is exactly what I like so much about it. Both Willis and Pitt give superb performances -Pitt won a Golden Globe for his role- and the cinematography and soundtrack are so good that you’ll watch it again and again. You don’t even need to be a science fiction fan to enjoy this film, just someone who likes a good story with an ending that’s like nothing in Hollywood. Watch it once and it’ll soon be part of your collection.

vocabulary

mentally ill = having mental (mind) and/or emotional problems

psychiatrist = a doctor who helps people with mental or emotional problems

sane = having a "normal" thinking; not crazy