Kristian Fosh aims to continue the current point ‘n’ click adventure revival with Jason The Greek: The Ladies of Lemnos, a colourful and light-hearted caper inspired by Monkey Island, Discworld and other adventure games of yore.

There’s also an influence behind it that you may not expect – Star Trek.

Kristian is no stranger to the world of development, having worked on renowned MMORPG RuneScape in addition to a handful of smaller titles including Arcanists and Zombie Dawn.

Sound engineer Chris Jolley is also lending a hand to make Jason The Greek a reality, with a back catalogue comprising of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and more.

The plot sees Jason – the charismatic captain of the Argo – and his crew become stranded on the Isle of Lemnos while searching for the Golden Fleece. Also known as ‘The Land of Women’, Jason soon finds himself in quite the predicament with the locals.

With the clock currently ticking on Kickstarter, Kristian has been kind enough to share some words on his hopes and aims for Jason the Greek, and just how Star Trek fits into a something seeped in ancient Greek mythology.

Where did the desire to create Jason The Greek come from?

The game first came from the desire to want to make the kind of title I really enjoy – a point and click adventure. I had worked on a few collaborations and when these faded out due to one reason or another I guess I really just wanted to do something for myself, something I really loved to do.

Story wise, I’ve always wanted to do a sci-fi spoof, it’s something I’ve had in the back of my head for a long time but I wanted to do a more original take on the whole genre instead of just another Kirk-clone and so mixed it with another great geek passion of mine that is the Greek Myths and legends, personal favourite being Jason and The Argonauts. From there everything else just fell into place.

The lead character has been described as mixture of Captain Kirk and the captain of the Argonauts. Care to elaborate?

Haha – yep, with a dash of Zapp Brannigan thrown in for good measure. Essentially his character design, his clothes, armour, dress sense etc are all inspired by the Ancient Greeks but the personality is much more Kirk-esque with many a manly monologue and offset pause in conversation.

I imagine both captains were irresistible to women, though…

We’re informed that the Star Trek homage doesn’t end with Jason himself due to part of the crew being formed of “Red Skirts”. These background characters always faced vastly tragic deaths whenever accompanying Enterprise personnel on ‘away missions’. Will the same apply here?

Absolutely – the Red Skirts will litter the game not only as a homage but also as interactive tool tips throughout. So when you find a dying crew member they will do their best to aid their captain with their dying breath…

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Even though it’s only the beginning of December, this week sees the release of the last two major games of the year – Gran Tursimo 6 and Bravely Default.

It’s pleasing to see Sony still supporting the PlayStation 3 with the likes of Gran Turismo 6 and Racket & Clank: Into the Nexus, instead of ushering PS3 owners into buying a shiny new PlayStation 4.

It’s not particularly pleasing to hear, however, that Sony has decided to introduce micro-transactions into the Gran Turismo series.

Prices start at £3.99 and go to up £39.99 – the same cost of the game itself. If that wasn’t bad enough, those with early access have discovered that to unlock a Jaguar XJ13 using in-game credits would cost a frankly ridiculous £120 in real money. Nobody is forcing you to, of course, but it’s still disheartening to learn that the option is there.

Reviews are due to go live tomorrow. I’ll be interesting to see if these micro-transactions have tarnished the overall experience.

Update: Scores are starting to surface, and they’re a little mixed – 5/5 from The Telegraph, 8.0 from IGN, 6/10 from Videogamer who called it “solid but soulless”.

For the uninformed, Bravely Default on 3DS is a new handheld Final Fantasy all but in name.

Innovation lies in the battle system, which features the ability to stack and bank attacks. It’s an idea that’s easy to pick up but difficulty to master, full of depth and plenty of scope for tactics.

Review scores so far include 8/10s from EDGE, Eurogamer and The Metro.

Also hitting 3DS this week, in addition to Wii U, is Scribblenauts Unlimited. This was originally due out shortly after the Wii U itself – and even briefly appeared on the eShop back in February – but was officially delayed due to undisclosed changes that had to be made for Europe. Its release is so belated in fact that the semi-sequel Scribblenauts Unmasked is already available in some parts of the world.

Worth the wait? There’s no doubt that it’s a good game, but price is a slight issue – £34.99 for something that has an imminent sequel due out, and superhero filled one at that, strikes us as a being a little steep.

Still, it’s a safer purchase than movie tie-in Disney Frozen: Olaf’s Quest which hits 3DS and DS this Friday for around £20.

That’s it for retail releases this week. If none of the above can tempt money out of your wallet, then maybe some of the new titles hitting the download services will.

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In a week were indie games showed how far into the mainstream they have come – thanks to a showing of Indie Game: The Movie on Channel 4 – it’s interesting to find myself reviewing a game that’s destined to be hidden away on Microsoft’s Xbox indie section for the rest of eternity.

Indeed, indie games on Xbox Live have regrettably failed to break through in the same way that they have on PC.

Another issue that indie games face on Xbox is price. During ‘Cyber Monday’ Namco’s Dark Souls was discounted to a frankly absurd £3.74. When bargains on blockbuster games like this come up, it starts to make Cubicity’s reasonable £1.99 price point look unreasonable.

Suffice to say, the games added to Xbox Live’s indie section have become ghettoised. Cubicity is the latest title to try and break out of this ghetto.

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While it’s true that visuals aren’t everything, Swap Force has an incredibly luxurious look and feel to it that enforces the fact Activision aren’t just relying on heavy promotion to sell the series.

Dare we say that some may be surprised to learn that there’s a genuinely excellent game under the occasionally nauseatingly colourful exterior. Ourselves included, there – this is far from being the slapdash sequel that we were expecting.

Although it was only a year ago that Skylanders: Giants was released, Swap Force’s development began over at Vicarious Visions shortly after the original Skylanders proved itself to be a huge hit, thus allowing original franchise creators ‘Toys For Bob’ to focus on Giants and presumably next year’s edition.

A change in developer, not to mention a two year development period, has resulted in Swap Force feeling remarkably polished. It makes us wonder what other franchises could benefit from a change of perspective.

Speaking of perspective, the camera angle is now less claustrophobic and changes on the fly to give the best possible view of action. This goes a long way to giving Swap Force the look and feel of a traditional platformer rather than that of a top-down RPG like before.

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Earlier this year Capcom did something rather unexpected and brought the 3DS-exclusive Resident Evil: Revelations to consoles. By vastly improving the visuals and adding new modes Capcom just about managed to pull off this somewhat questionable stunt.

Konami have now followed suit by bringing the 3DS’s Mirror of Fate to both PSN and XBLA. Out of all the thoroughly excellent 3DS games released this year this perhaps the only one to have not sold in significant numbers, so to see it being given a second chance is rather pleasing.

For some, the price-tag may also form part of the appeal. It’s a mere £9.99 to download, compared to the £20+ the 3DS original still sells for.

As you may expect, the visuals have received a spruce up. Character models retain a somewhat dated angular look, but textures have been sharpened and consequently now feature additional detail.

It’s still easy to tell though that this was never originally intended to be a console game – when the camera pans back things do look a little on the diminutive side. Sadly, this also has a knock-on effect to the atmosphere. The dark and eerie corners of Dracula’s castle aren’t quite as poignant to explore when displayed on a TV screen.

Worry not as there’s still a brilliantly designed game under the slightly unimpressive exterior. Part of this brilliance lies in the fact that all three playable characters – Simon, Trevor and Alcuard – have their own skill set. This not only helps to give each an identity, but it also makes their respective acts play differently from one another.

Their array of supernatural powers awarded as the story progresses is sizeable, varying from various spirits that can be summoned to the ability to change into a werewolf.

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With one million consoles shifted at launch the Xbox One got off to a strong start, but unless we’re mistaken no records were broken.

Sony’s release of the PlayStation 4 last week has however succeeded in doing so – it has become the fastest-selling console in UK history, beating the record set by the PSP way back in 2005.

Over 185,000 PS4s were sold in the UK. UPDATE: A colossal 250,000 consoles were in fact sold, reports MCV.

The console’s release helps Call of Duty: Ghosts retake the top spot in the UK top 40, pushing previous #1 FIFA 14 down to #2.

Battlefield 4 holds in at #3, and then at #4 it’s the first PS4-exclusive in the chart – Killzone: Shadow Fall.

The rest of the UK top 10 looks like this: Assassin’s Creed IV at #5, followed by LEGO Marvel Super Heroes, GTA V, Need for Speed Rivals – which is up five places this week – Just Dance 2014 and Batman: Arkham Origins at #10.

Knack is the next PS4-exclusive in the chart after Killzone, entering at #13. That’s, somewhat sadly, higher than Super Mario 3D World which débuts at #14. Nintendo shouldn’t feel too down about this as it can likely be attributed to retailers pushing the Knack PS4 bundle.

The next new arrival in the chart is NBA 2K14 at #16 thanks to the PS4 version proving curiously popular.

Then all the way down at #38 it’s Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition.

The Xbox One launch titles remain in the top 40, but they’ve dropped by considerable amounts. Forza 5 falls from #5 to #15, Dead Rising 3 shuffles from #7 to #18 and Ryse fails to live up to its name by falling from #10 to #24.

Marvellous handheld duo Zelda: A Link Between World and Tearway have likewise dropped heavily this week – Zelda is down from #9 to #17 while Tearaway crafts its way from #26 to #37.

Back in the early ‘90s CVG magazine ran a short article taking a look at the copious amount of then upcoming consoles. Whoever wrote it claimed that the “Play Station” (as it was then known) was likely to be pushed to the wayside by the consoles Atari, Nintendo and Sega were working on. In hindsight, it’s a claim that’s somewhat comical.

At the time though it was a justifiable thing to have said. The only experience Sony had with videogames was via their publishing label Sony Imagesoft, whose arguably biggest hit was Mickey Mania for Mega Drive and SNES.

The fact that the PlayStation only came about due to an aborted partnership with Nintendo to create a CD add-on for the SNES also hinted at some sour grapes on Sony’s behalf. It was almost as if Sony were planning to go at it alone simply as payback for Nintendo cutting their potential fortunes short.

Cheap and easy to develop for, the PlayStation did of course eventually go on to outsell both the Saturn and N64 while becoming a household name in the process.

Sony’s marketing campaigns played a large part in the system’s immense popularity – putting demo pods running WipEout in UK nightclubs was a genius move, not to mention one that helped videogames as a whole appeal to a far larger audience.

Those who shelled out £299 on launch day were treated to a stellar line-up that knocked the Saturn’s launch games for six. Ridge Racer may have only featured one track, but it looked far greater than Sega’s rushed out conversion of Daytona USA. It was, in short, a system seller.

WipEout was an altogether different kind of racer – far edgier, without a single pair of wheels in sight. It may have been soon bettered by WipEout 2097, which featured vastly improved handling, but the original was still a very important game for Sony that showed off what the system could do.

The soundtrack too turned heads, featuring licensed tracks from Chemical Brothers, Leftfield and Orbital. The now sadly defunct Psygnosis provided quite a few of the PlayStation’s line-up in fact, with two more titles – Destruction Derby and 3D Lemmings – arriving just a couple of weeks after the console itself.

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American gamers have had their beloved PlayStation 4 consoles for a few weeks now, thus giving those living outside the US an early heads-up about to what expect from the launch titles.

Killzone: Shadow Fall follows suits from the rest of the games in the series – oh so pretty, but lacking any true innovation.

As such reviews have been mixed – everything from 5.0 from Polygon to 9/10 from Destuctoid. Most critics agree though it’s a good showcase for the PS4. As launch titles tend to go, we don’t think you could ask for much more.

Don’t expect much from Knack and you won’t be disappointed either. This is intended to be a family friendly title, likened to Crash Bandicoot by more than a few. Some reviewers found solace in its simplistic platforming ways, but others felt it was beyond dated. Again, scores were mixed. You can probably bank on this one dropping in price quickly, should that help your purchasing decision.

Did the PS4 really need a family friendly title when it already has LEGO Marvel Super Heroes and Skylanders Swap Force? Perhaps – these two don’t quite show off the system in the way that Knack does. Regardless, they’re safe launch-day purchases.

Rest easy knowing that you won’t be disappointed with taking any of the following home either – Need For Speed Rivals, Assassin’s Creed IV, Battlefield 4, Call of Duty: Ghosts, Injustice: Gods Among Us Ultimate Edition, FIFA 14, NBA 2K14 and Madden NFL 25. All of these have proven to be great on other formats, although we didn’t quite enjoy the latest Call of Duty as much as we first envisioned.

As we reported on Monday, NBA Live 14 and Angry Birds Star Wars were the worst selling Xbox One launch titles. We expect that’ll be the case on PlayStation 4.

Putty Squad is another of questionable quality – a HD remake of an unreleased Amiga game from 1994. The £13.99 PSN price tag – compared to the £21.99 asking price on Amazon for the retail version – might save it from slipping into further obscurity.

System 3 are also releasing Pinball Arcade, which IGN really enjoyed. To quote: “The first table’s free, so there’s no excuse; this is a must to download”

Stylish shooter Resogun is another must have, not to mention currently the highest rated PS4 title on Metacritic. If you’re a PlayStation Plus member it’s available for free, along with the 1920’s Parisian adventure Contrast which has been well received.

WWII fight-sim shooter War Thunder, Warframe – from the developer of The Darkness II and Dark Sector – and DC Universe Online are also free-to-play on PSN and confirmed for launch. They will soon be joined by Blacklight: Retribution.

Hopefully the servers will be able to cope with the influx of people buying a PS4 this weekend.

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