I've been playing a lot more Race Pro and some of the other games from last month too.
I've also been playing some of my recently purchased games like Pro Rally and Red Faction.
CastleVania Symphony of the Night (PlayStation and PlayStation version running on PlayStation Portable)
The classic and often regarded best game in the series. I've never been that huge a fan but I still like it enough to warrant a playthrough every few years. It's a great game but I feel the difficulty curve is unbalanced due to the open nature of the game. You mainly play as Dracula's half human son Alucard, and your mission is essentially to find and kill Dracula. It's a platformer adventure with RPG elements like leveling up, getting new equipment and lots of free roaming exploration. The problem is if you accidentally go down the wrong path you'll have a much harder time and a much more frustrating experience than you would if you randomly happened to go down another path instead, that's pretty much the case throughout the entire game. Only if you've done it before and have an idea of what areas pose the fairest challenge and where to go to get the good stuff early can you get a balanced playthrough without too much low level grinding and insta kill rooms of death. It's a gorgeous game though and there's plenty of stuff to love in it despite some of the issues it has. It's not a perfect game but it is one of the greatest games of all time and I would urge everyone who sees themselves as gamers to play through it at least once. It's absolutely a case of the good outweighing the bad.
Armored Core (PlayStation version played on PlayStation Portable)
Picked up where I left off last time i played. Got through a few missions and got some new parts.
Rapid Racer (PlayStation version played on PlayStation Portable)
My favorite boat racing game. I know Hydro Thunder is more well known but this is the one I loved back in the day, Hydro Thunder didn't have the precision this game has, it felt sloppy and fake in comparison, like a wannabe who didn't know how to be good enough but pretended that he was and expected everyone to agree because he was popular, it naturally failed to impress me, Rapid Racer was the real deal and is still fantastic to play to this day while Hydro Thunder has aged horribly when seen side by side with this game. Thanks to the optimized design it runs silky smooth at a rock solid 50/60fps framerate (PAL/NTSC respectively) and handles great because of it, a true joy to play.
Armored Core (PlayStation version played on PlayStation Portable)
Picked up where I left off last time i played. Got through a few missions and got some new parts.
Rapid Racer (PlayStation version played on PlayStation Portable)
My favorite boat racing game. I know Hydro Thunder is more well known but this is the one I loved back in the day, Hydro Thunder didn't have the precision this game has, it felt sloppy and fake in comparison, like a wannabe who didn't know how to be good enough but pretended that he was and expected everyone to agree because he was popular, it naturally failed to impress me, Rapid Racer was the real deal and is still fantastic to play to this day while Hydro Thunder has aged horribly when seen side by side with this game. Thanks to the optimized design it runs silky smooth at a rock solid 50/60fps framerate (PAL/NTSC respectively) and handles great because of it, a true joy to play.
Battle Engine Aquila (promo) (PlayStation 2)
I've had this on Xbox since back in the day but since my Xbox is broken now I thought I'd get the PS2 version to play instead. I could only find a promo version but whatever, it's still the same game as the regular retail release as far as I can tell. I love mech games and this fits in nicely alongside Armored Core 2, Frame Gride, Gundam Side Story 0079 Rise from the Ashes, GunGriffon Blaze, GunGriffon Allied Strike, Gun Metal, MechAssault, Metal Wolf Chaos, Murakumo Renegade Mech Pursuit, Phantom Crash, Ring of Red, Robot Warlords, S.L.A.I. Steel Lancer Arena International, Slave Zero, Steel Battalion, Virtual On Oratorio Tangram and Zone of the Enders as one of the classic mech games of the 128-bit generation.
Red Faction (PlayStation 2)
An old favorite I haven't played since it was new on PC. This is my first time playing it on PS2 and I'm glad to report it's just as good as I remember. The PS2 doesn't downgrade the experience one bit, unlike for example the PS2 port of Quake 3 Revolution which was a rather sad and awful experience despite having such an excellent port on the Dreamcast. Red Faction for those unfamiliar with it is a first person shooter with destructible environments, which was most unusual back the day, and even today is uncommon at best. I remember when I played it the first time how impressed I was at how you could blow new ways through the levels with your more explosive weapons, and it still feels great doing it today. I wish more modern games would do stuff like this instead of the same old "cinematic experience" that honestly overstayed its welcome well over a decade ago.
Pro Rally 2002 (GameCube)
It's an arcade rally racer in similar spirits of Sega Rally 2. It's mostly your standard rally fare but what makes it special is the physics engine, it's very bouncy and exaggerated, making racing a lot more interesting than most other rally games. I've been having a lot of fun with this one, getting many good laughs at how silly it gets sometimes. It's also rather glitchy, adding to the overall sillyness. It's definitely not a game I'd recommend to anyone wanting a realistic rally simulator.
Alone in the Dark (Xbox 360)
I bought this about a year ago but never got around playing it properly until now. I've had the PS2 game since it came out many years ago and I've played through it a few times over the years. Playing this version brings back a lot of memories, both good and bad, but it's not exactly the same game as it is on PS2, they're essentially the same game but made from thr ground up each, so it's like two very similar versions of the same idea. What's funny is how they both suffer from the same kind of glitches and bugs and thus have most of the same problems and issues. It's hard to say which is the best version because of this. They're both good in the good parts and bad in the bad parts, many of the ideas that went into the game are interesting and I like the overall story but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. They simply failed to implement the ideas they had and the game ended up a mess as the result. I still mostly enjoy it, I just need to take many breaks to calm myself when the game repeatedly get on my nerves.
Shadow The Hedgehog (GameCube and Xbox (Xbox version played on Xbox 360))
V-Rally 3 (Game Boy Advance)
LEGO Drome Racers (Game Boy Advance)
Asterix & Obelix XXL (Game Boy Advance)
Race PRO (Xbox 360)
Sly Cooper - Thieves in Time (PlayStation 3)
