Upon getting a review assignment, even before I actually get a chance to play the game, I hop onto the Web to see what my fellow videogame journalists are saying about it. What I discovered about Frogwares 80 Days (published by Tri Synergy) was anything but flattering. By the time it got to my doorstep I wasn't looking forward to booting it up, let alone playing the sucker. But a funny thing happened about 15 minutes into actual gameplay... I was laughing. Out loud. And I was enjoying the experience! Proving once again that if you stick a chimp (or a "videogame journalist" in this casec) in a room with a writing utensil, he'll eventually pound out something worth reading. That, and opinions are like... well, you know. I consider myself a writer who plays videogames, not a gamer who writes. Thus, I tend to enjoy games with interesting storylines (even if they're not original) more than the Average Joe-Gamer. John Carmak once said, "Story in a game is like story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important." Whatever.