Gaming Purchases - Februari 2019

Februari 5th:

some awesome secondhand finds

PlayStation 2:
SONY PlayStation 2 Slim (300kr, slim model SCPH-90004 from 2008, came with a power cable and a very worn but still functional composite video cable)
SONY Dual Shock 2 Analog Controller (came with the PS2, it's a bit worn but still works)
SONY PlayStation 2 8MB MagicGate Memory Card (came with the PS2)
Sonic Riders (disc only, it was in the PS2 when I opened the lid, the disc is scratched pretty bad and has some trouble playing the intro video and in-game music but it works enough for gameplay, it's not an issue for me regardless though as I still have my old unharmed original copy of the game I bought when it was released in 2006)

PC:
Diablo II (BestSeller Series)
Diablo II Expansion Set Lord of Destruction (disc only, has some minor scratches on it but should work fine)
Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun Plus Firestorm Mission CD

DVD:
Gustav + Gustav 2 (Garfield (2004) + Garfield 2 A Tale of Two Kitties (2006))
Ooops! Var är arken? (Ooops! Noah Is Gone../Two by Two/All Creatures Big and Small, 2015)
Argai The Prophecy - Vol. 1 (new and sealed, 2000)

Comics:
Dennis The Menace
2x Gustaf (Garfield)
2x Tom & Jerry

Manga:
Emma

Other:
2x retro drink coasters
a jar of decorative fake diamonds
2x mixed blind bags of toys (2x2x2 Rubik's Cube (Minions), 1x2x3 Rubik's Cube (Secret Life of Pets), etc.)

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Februari 12th:

Electronics:
HDMI <-> Component converter (USB powered)

Manga:
Rebirth (volumes 1 to 11 and 16)
One Piece (volumes 19, 20 and 30)
Tsubasa (volumes 11 and 12)

Comics:
Arne Anka

Magazines:
Bratz (stickers and puzzles)

Toys:
a bunch of Bakugan with some metal cards
a pink metallic fidget spinner
colorful camo fidget spinner
a bag of old 90s constructable sci-fi toys (a robot, lots of little pilot guys, some other various pieces)

Other:
a cartoony fox girl bike chain lock

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Februari 18th:

Magazine
LEGO Batman + LEGO Batman figure (polybag)

Game Purchases - Juni 2018

Juni 6th:

No gaming purchases yet, just a movie.

DVD:
Rock Dog (2017)

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Juni 8th:

A couple more movies.

DVD:
Godzilla (2014)

Bluray:
Smurfarna Den Försvunna Byn (The Smurfs Lost Village, 2017)

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Juni 14th:

Finally got some new games purchased today!

Wii:
The Simpsons Game (no manual)
Welcome to Animal Crossing: Let's go to the City

PlayStation 2:
Rollercoaster World (no manual)

PlayStation 3:
Ratchet & Clank Tools of Destruction (no manual)

PC:
FlatOut (Medallion)

DVD:
6e Dagen (The 6th Day, 2000)
Den Onda Dockan 3 (Child's Play 3, 2001)
Fruits Basket - The Complete Series (6 Disc Exclusive Collection)
LEGO Ninjago Masters of Spinjitzu Vol. 2
LEGO Ninjago Masters of Spinjitzu Vol. 3
Transformers (2007)

Bluray:
Jack Frost (1996)

LEGO:
Mini Taurus (buildable board game, the yellow playable microfigure character was missing, otherwise it was complete in box)

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Juni 25th:

And a few more movies.

DVD:
Bamse och Häxans Dotter (Bamse and the Witch's Daughter, 2016)
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Bilar 3 (Cars 3, 2017)
Den Stora Nötkuppen 2 (The Nut Job 2, 2017)
Dumma Mej 3 (Despicable Me 3, 2017)
Leatherface (2015)
The Emoji Movie (2017)

Bluray:
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Justice League (2017)
Sing (2016)

Now Playing - Januari 2018

Lego Batman 3 Beyond Gotham (3DS)
beat it 100%

Lego Marvel Avengers (PlayStation Vita)
beat story mode

Lego Batman The Videogame (Xbox 360)
beat it 100%

Lego Star Wars The Force Awakens (PlayStation Vita)

Lego Batman 2 DC Super Heroes (Xbox 360)
beat it 100%

Lego Star Wars The Force Awakens (3DS)
Now I see why the Vita version was so mediocre and lackluster, it's sadly just a port of the 3DS version rather than a properly made and optimized Vita original version or stationary console port like it could've easily been seeing as the Vita is literally PS3 hardware and there are games on it that surpass even the best technical achievements on the PS3, like the incredibly impressive Killzone Mercenary that far surpasses games like Killzone 2 and 3 and Resistance 2 and 3, four of the very finest shooters the PS3 has to offer! not saying this is a bad game, it's just a shame the low tech 3DS (it's weaker than the old PSP) got a custom version when the vastly more powerful Vita just gets a slightly polished up port.

Yoshi's New Island (3DS)
Unresponsive, stiff, forced motion controls during certain segments, one-way levels that force you to replay the level from the beginning if you missed something, plain and simple this game feels like it was designed in the mid 80s.

Battle Frenzy/Bloodshot (Mega Drive)
An FPS in a similar vein to Wolfenstein 3D only in a sci-fi setting and it has a 2 player split-screen multiplayer mode.
It's a good game for the time and I like it, it gets a bit choppy and the countdown at the end of every level is almost a greater enemy than the nasty killer machines you face along the way.
It's a very tough game but it's cool enough and still enjoyable.
I got the european version titled Battle Frenzy but in the game the title screen still says Bloodshot.

Disney's Kim Possible Global Gemini (DS, played on 3DS)
Very similar to the PS2 game Kim Possible What's the Switch?, it actually does a really good job with the visuals and gameplay alike, its' smooth, responsive, you got good moves and I like the visual style with some flat shaded polygonal stuff, it fits with the cartoony look perfectly and helps the DS keep up a nice level of detail and a brisk framerate at the same time, a very well crafted game overall so far and I'm enjoying it.
UPDATE: The on-rail segments with snowboard and moped suck, they use the touch screen as a pseudo analog steering tablet and it's awkward as fuck to hold the DS/3DS while playing a game that way, those are by far the worst parts of the game so far, also the matrix type levels aren't very good either, it's just a gauntlet of dodging laser beams and a lot of grapple hook swinging, neither of which are this game's strong points, also they look really generic with the same blue grid pattern on everything.

WinX Club (PlayStation 2)
Finally I got hold of this for PS2, I've had the PC version for a few years but as both a fan of WinX Club and an avid console gamer I've always wanted the PS2 version specifically. It's virtually identical to the PC version. A good action platformer and great game for WinX Club fans.

Now Playing - Juni 2016

Mostly been playing the games I got recently, it feels great to finally own copies of my own for some of these games and the newcomers have been welcome additions to my library as well.

Doom (32X)

Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli (PS2)
A newly purchased game I'm trying out. It's fairly average overall with some highlights and some low points. It's a bit glitchy and the main menu has frozen on my multiple times when in the Options menu, forcing me to reset my PS2.
The visuals are a mixed bag, it runs at 25fps (in the PAL version I have, I'm assuming the NTSC version runs at 30) and it's a bit grainy and pixelated, not a lot of antialiasing going on, if any, maybe some but I think it's just the light bloom effect making it seem like it's smoother than it really is. On the bright side it does have some very nice details on the cars and environment, with some nice dynamic shadows and light bloom effect that makes it all look at bit less flat and boring, there are real-time reflections on the cars with a fairly high framerate on them, not buttery smooth but it's a lot better than games like Forza on Xbox where the game ran 30fps but the reflections were rendered in single digits.
One thing I noticed was that there was only ever one type of car model on the track at any given time, you always race against the same type of car you're driving, this means you can't pick a better car and win and vice versa for the opponents, they all have different paint jobs though so it's not too visually repetitive.
You have a few different camera angles to pick from, three behind the car where two are far away and one so close it's impractical, a hood cam and a bumper cam, sadly no driver cam like the game claims in the manual because that part is copied directly from the PS3 and Wii versions' manuals, simple laziness from the developers not making a dedicated manual and information for the PS2 version, also, some claim that a racing wheel that supposedly should work doesn't, but I don't have one of those so it's not something I can test or verify myself.
There's damage modeling on the cars, which is nice, and while nothing fancy, just some superficial twisted metal, it's still better than the likes of Gran Turismo or Enthusia where there was no damage at all to be found.
The driving physics are fairly good, it's an arcade-sim hybrid so it's a bit exaggerated by real life standards but still maintain a lot of the real world dynamics you would expect, it does powersliding very well, so drifting is fairly easy to do, it's not too unlike DT Racer in that regard, which is great as DT Racer is my all time favorite racing game.
There are some odd parts to this game, like they have their own Achievements/Trophy system where you win cards with Ferrari cars on them by completing set "Card Challenges" in the game's many modes, like beat your own time in Time Trial, win a race first place and other such common goals, and the information about the cars on the cards, like the year it was introduced, how fast the top speed is and the brake horse power etc., act like points in this odd card game you can play that doesn't seem to do anything whether you win or lose.
There are a few different modes to play in the game, relatively basic stuff but it's at least all there, all except multiplayer that is, it's a singleplayer game only, so if you wanted to race against your friends you're all out of luck.
You unlock cars before you get to buy them, you earn credits from racing in general, even time trial gets you a few measly points. You can also customize your cars to an extent, with custom paintjobs a-la-Need for Speed Underground with paints such as metallic, pearlescent, glossy and matte. You can also add custom vinyls and stuff, nothing too advanced but it's better than nothing, no extreme custom mods like new spoilers or body kits or anything of that sort though, but you do get to customize things like ride height and other more technical stuff i have little to no interest in, just the usual basic performance tweaking.
There are more things I could talk about like how you can set the challenge mode time so you can end up having to race 45 minutes before the race can end and other odd little things like that but I haven't explored the game enough to go into more detail at the moment.
As a final word I'll say the AI is okay, they're not glued to an invisible race line like in the Gran Turismo games, so if there's contact they don't automatically get the upper hand screwing you over by default.

Mega Drive Collection (PS2)
Sonic, Sonic 2 and Shinobi III.

The Ultimate Doom (the Doom 3 Resurrection of Evil version for Xbox played on Xbox 360)
It's easily one of the most accurate console ports of the original PC version of Doom there is, maybe even more so than the newer ones and maybe even the most so period, and while I still prefer the 32X and PlayStation versions for their changes and upgrades that fit my personal taste better, it's nice to be able to enjoy the original in it's original form now and then as well.

Doom 3 Resurrection of Evil (Xbox, played on Xbox 360)
I prefer Doom 3 on Xbox over the PC original and RoE is a great follow up that improves on the original in just about every technical way. I may not care as much for the story and setting in RoE as I do for Doom 3, but it's still good and I enjoy it. I've always felt RoE is underappreciated and when playing it now again after not having played it for years I can say I still feel the same way, it is underappreciated.

Quake 2 (Quake 4 Bonus Disc version for Xbox 360)
I love Quake 2, it's one of my all time favorites regardless of the version, sure the N64 version is the marginally weakest due to the choppiness and bad controls but it's still great, so even at it's worst Quake 2 holds up and is a joy to play. This version for Xbox 360 that comes on the initial release of Quake 4's Bonus Disc is a direct and virtually perfect port of the PC original. Sadly the newer re-release of Quake 4 on Xbox 360 lacked the Bonus Disc making it much harder to get hold of, I had to buy Quake 4 twice to get it myself as the first was the correct release but the disc was missing when I got it, after that I found a complete copy at GameStop that I bought immediately.
I may prefer the PlayStation port as my favorite of them all due to the upgrades and added content but I love the PC original and it's nice that there was finally a proper console port with no changes or downgrades.

Quake 3 Revolution (PlayStation 2)
Not as good as the Dreamcast port over all, sure it has twice as high framerate and the pickups are 3D models instead of 2D icons but the controls are much worse, the load times are extremely long and the visuals are much duller in color, and if I'm not mistaken some special effects are completely missing like shiny surfaces on some walls and stuff, and to be honest I prefer the 2D icons the Dreamcast version has as they were much easier to detect.
Still, as my Dreamcast remains dead the PS2 version is all I got, short of the PC original, but I don't wanna play on PC when I have a proper console version.

Quake 4 (Xbox 360)
I'm not a fan of this game and the Xbox 360 versions makes it hard to even endure with a really bad framerate to constantly remind you that there is no fun allowed.
I've tried Quake 4 once before when I bought it but I thought it pretty much sucked and because I only really bought it for the Bonus Disc containing Quake 2 I never bothered giving Quake 4 much of a chance at the time, so I figured I'd give it one now. It doesn't start good but I'll keep at it and see if it gets any better.

Now Playing - April 2016

What I'm playing right now.

Rally Fusion Race Of Champions (PlayStation 2)
Pretty much my all-time favorite rally game. It has all my favorite rally cars throughout all the ages of rally racing, fantastic visuals, good driving physics, great tracks and a driving feel that makes it enjoyable to just play the game. I recently (middle of December 2015) got hold of the Xbox version but because my Xbox died just a few days later I never got a chance to try it out, so now instead I've dug out my PS2 copy and am playing through it from the beginning. I haven't played it in what feels like forever but it's just as good as I remember it to be and after having played some other rather fun rally games recently on PS2 and GameCube (WRC3 and Pro Rally respectively) you might think this would have a harder time living up to the memory I have of it being the best and all but honestly it's quite the opposite, it easily lived up to my rose-tinted memories and in comparison to the other two it's in a league of it's own, even other types of challenges that in other games are mostly tedious and annoying are fun in this, like cone challenges, I don't know any other racing game where I enjoy them in beside this!

Beyond Oasis (Mega Drive)
A top-down action adventure game with platforming, puzzle and RPG elements, a common type of game on Super Nintendo but not so much on the Mega Drive making this very much a one of a kind.
And what a one of a kind it is! It's easily the best representative of the genre in that generation and puts the Super Nintendo competitors like The Legend of Zelda A Link to the Past and Chrono Trigger in their places.
I completed the game with a time of 6 hours and 33 minutes with 0 deaths but I missed a lot of secrets and stuff so I only got about half of the stuff you can find and none of the secret super weapons. So there's certainly replayability in there as well, which is nice.
The game has a built in save feature for up to four separate files at a time and it saves your end scores so every time you beat it you can compare with how you did in your previous playthroughs. You can aim to get a better time and higher rank and stuff separately too as they have their own scoreboards which is really cool and should be appreciated by anyone who likes to improve their game without having to keep a manual score themselves by writing down stats on paper or on a PC or something, very innovative thinking by the developers to say the least, even more so for a game released in 1995 on a console from 1989.
So it's a great game and a must play for anyone who likes the idea of the genre but haven't felt satisfied with the more common Super Nintendo offerings, this was the type of game I was looking for and I enjoyed it a lot.

Metal Head (32X)
Basically Armored Core on the 32X, it's fantastic.
Star Wars Arcade (32X)

Virtua Racing Deluxe (32X)

Now Playing - January 2016

I have it as a tradition to start a new playthrough in a game I love to start off the new year, this year I created a new save file in CastleVania Symphony of the Night. I completed it with 198% on the 13th which got me the best ending.

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.

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)

Now Playing - December 2015

Been focusing mostly on the new games I got at the end of last month so far.

Gift (PlayStation 2)
An obscure classic that was hyped for the impressive lighting and shadows back in the day. I was looking forward to it but sadly never got hold of it, at best I got to play the demo of the PC version. But that's all changed and now I finally get to experience this forgotten piece of videogame history! I have to say, because of how impressive it was back then it maganes to still look good today. It's your standard 3D platformer for the most part but with a strong focus on light and shadow puzzles, many enemies are light and shadow based and your weapons and attacks are as well. The humor is a bit of a swing and a miss sometimes but mostly I like the cheesy story and cutscenes, it's like a reminder from a simpler time when all games didn't have to be Oscar winning movies. One problem so far is that it refuses to recognize my memory card having plenty of free space, probably because it's a third party memory card, so if I wanna save I'm gonna have to dig out an older 8mb Sony original memory card. And I don't think I have one with any free space left. Very annoying as I want to play more but can't as I'm forced to restart from the beginning every time.

Headhunter (PlayStation 2)
Has some problems loading the main menu, most likely due to some minor scratches on the disc, but once in-game it works fine. It really doesn't hold a candle to the original version on Dreamcast, gone are the crisp textures and detailed shadows, replaced with muddy low-res textures and simple blurry shadow blobs that seem taken directly from an early N64 game. It still plays the same, which isn't that great either as that means it doesn't use the second analog stick very well, instead of adding camera control (missing in the Dreamcast original as Dreamcast only has one analog stick) they just use it to cycle through items and weapons, in other words a total waste as that could've been done better in many other ways. As it stands Headhunter on PS2 is a disappointing port that leaves a lot to be desired. No wonder some people thought the Dreamcast had so much more to offer than PS2 back in the day when poor ports like this was part of their comparison.

Wreckless The Yakuza Mission (PlayStation 2 and GameCube)
I love Wreckless on Xbox, it's an arcade style mission based driving game with visuals that were jawbreaking at the time and still impress to this very day. Shortly after the Xbox exclusive version came out we got the two altered ports I've finally added to my collection after so many years. The ports seem to have been first ported to PS2 and then ported over to GameCube using the PS2 port as basis. I say this because the PS2 port is superior in just about every way and the GameCube port is more or less a poor copy & paste job. They share the exact same content but with more glitches and much uglier visuals on the GameCube. Neither versions compare to the Xbox original visually but at least the PS2 version still has quite a lot to offer, much thanks to the added content but also because it still looks and plays great in it's own right. Sadly some things are missing from the Xbox original, the missions with tanks are all gone, including the mission where you get to drive a tank yourself blowing stuff up, instead all cars now fire rockets and have a slow motion feature, this adds some variety to the gameplay but it's got very limited ammo so it's only something you can use sparingly unless you activate the cheats, so the gameplay still remains very much the same as it always did. The Xbox original didn't have cheats, just unlockable stuff, these ported version unlocks both cheats and other stuff, but again some Xbox stuff is missing, you can no longer mix the scenarios with vehicles from the other scenario or use different screen filters, instead they've added all the normal traffic vehicles and a whole list of brand new missions to be unlocked. There are also unlimited this and infinite that cheats for time, weapons etc. and even a get out and walk around and hijack other cars cheat, ultimately making the ports more like an open world vehicle combat game if you so please. Overall I like how the PS2 port is and I'm disappointed at the GameCube version. On GameCube it loads a little faster than it does on PS2 and it has better anti-aliasing, but with much uglier textures, visual glitches galore and special effects that are so poorly done you can't even see them properly it's easily the worst of the three. Additionally, in PAL regions the GameCube can be enabled 60hz playback with some games like Metroid Prime 2 Echoes and The Legend of Zelda Collection, which can then be used to prompt a question in other normally 50hz limited games if you wish to play them in 60hz as well. Well, turns out some select few games automatically override the question and force 50hz no matter what and Wreckless on GameCube just happens to be one of those games, as if it wasn't plagued with enough shortcomings already.

XGIII Extreme G - Extreme-G 3 (GameCube)
Speaking of select few games that force 50hz no matter what, here's another that does just that! Because of this it's basically identical to the PS2 version only with 4 player split-screen multiplayer instead of just 2. It even plays in NTSC50 with black borders on top and bottom, so not even PAL50 like other 50hz GameCube games do. So yeah, I already have the PS2 version since many years back so this version will probably never get played again. I guess if you don't have a PS2 this would've been fine but considering PS2 and Extreme G 3 on PS2 are both more common and cheaper to find and get hold of there really is no reason to ever bother with this version. Unless you're really desperate for that 4 player split-screen multiplayer there is no reason to ever buy this on GameCube and a waste of your time and money.

Shadow The Hedgehog (GameCube and Xbox (Xbox version played on Xbox 360))

Starsky & Hutch (Game Boy Advance)

V-Rally 3 (Game Boy Advance)

Tomb Raider The Prophecy (Game Boy Advance)

LEGO Drome Racers (Game Boy Advance)

Star X (Game Boy Advance)

B-Movie (PlayStation)

Star Ixiom (PlayStation)

Twisted Metal (PlayStation)
Decided to play this old classic a bit. Played as Roadkill and defeated Minion, it was a good playthrough. I still love this game the most of the entire series. Been thinking about maybe trying to get hold of the PS3 game but I'm on the fence about if it's worth the asking price, it doesn't seem that great to be honest and the extremely censored PAL version of Twisted Metal Black fiasco has never truly been forgiven despite the excellent Twisted Metal Head-On on PSP, the trust that was lost has simply not been regained.

Frogger (PlayStation)
I really like this game despite how unforgiving it is, it's a nostalgic classic I felt like playing again.

Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation and PlayStation version running on PSP)
Picked back up on my two newly started games. On PSX I'm just out of the Mythril Mine, having recently calmly walked across the soggy marshes and defeated the Midgar Solom with ease thatnks to some time being spent leveling up and getting some more practical Limit Breaks, before either visiting Fort Condor for the side mission or going directly to Junon (I'm heading for Fort Condor first, of course) and on PSP I'm outside Midgar, aquired Matra Magic and a whole bunch of Atomic Scissors that will later sell at a high price, just about to enter Kalm to do the first lengthy flashback.


UPDATE 1 - December 22nd

Asterix & Obelix XXL (Game Boy Advance)
As far as I know this is the only 3D platformer on the system. I've played a few other platformers with 3D visuals but they've been 2.5D type games, like that one atrocity based on Osmisis Jones... the less said about that game the better. This is instead something so rare as a not just competent but genuinely good 3D platformer on the Game Boy Advance. It uses the same impressive game engine that powers V-Rally 3, Stuntman and Driv3r on GBA so if you've played either of those you'll know the level of technical quality I'm talking about. As a game it's like most platformers, you play as either Asterix or Obelix, selecting between the two by pressing Select during gameplay, as you run around bashing romans, viking, greeks etc. doing some platforming, door unlocking and stuff on the side to advance through the levels, the usual repertoire. You get to buy upgrades like more health and new attack combos for the helmets you collect after defeating enemies and collecting throughout the levels. There are also some on-rail levels thrown into the mix to break the monotony. It's impressive to see a 3D platformer executed so well on the GBA and I've had a blast playing it so far. I'm currently about half way through the game and I'll definitely keep playing.

Warzone 2100 (PlayStation)
A 3D real-time strategy game where you get to design your own troops and control them each manually if you so wish. Sound too good to be true? Well, it's true, and what's even more impressive is that it's all done on good old PSX. I loved playing the demo of this back in the day and finally I have a copy of the full game to call my very own, and I gotta say it's every bit as great as I remembered it to be, maybe even better.

Crimson Skies - High Road To Revenge (Xbox (played on Xbox 360))
A flight sim arcade hybrid action game set in an alternate timeline where WWII wen't down a different path and old school propeller planes and zeppelin airships became the norm and the polar ice caps melted and covered earth with water or some Waterworld wannabe plot like that, I forgot to pay attention to the story as I took to the skies and started blasting everything in sight. It's a good game, looks great for an Xbox title and could easily pass as next gen in most regards. I like the way it plays, it reminds me a lot of other great games like WarHawk - The Red Mercury Missions on PlayStation, AquaNox and AquaNox 2 Revelation on PC and Yager, also on Xbox.

Race PRO (Xbox 360)
An Xbox 360 exclusive from 2009 that in my opinion does what the Forza series has failed to do all these years, it makes racing fun. Sure it lacks the size of a Forza game in sheer content and stuff to do like advanced car customization and a decal editor but it nails the driving and has some really welcome sound options where you can tweak what you want to hear and not better than any other game I know. I personally love the roar of the engine and can live without the sound of the clutch and gear changes, this game allows me to have the engine louder than anything else and the gears etc. turned off completely if I so wish, I don't take it to that extreme but it's nice to be able to tweak the sound experience in such detail for once, especially in a racing game. It didn't take long to get used to the driving physics in this game, they're very consistent and once I got the hang of one car the rest followed despite being wildly different in performance, it's all about how they handle within the game engine that does it for me, again something that games like Forza and Gran Turismo's never done right for me. It looks good too, the only real issue I have is the screen tearing, it's not so bad it ruins the game but it's one of the worse cases I've seen in an Xbox 360 game, nowhere near as bad as Alien Isolation or anything remotely close to that degree but for a racing game it's still notable. It's still a fun game, I like that you can really crash, with flips in the air and everything, unlike virtually all other sim racers that heavily restrict car damage and crashes or sometimes even remove it altogether this is most welcome. For once I'm even enjoying the carreer mode, something I rarely enjoy forcing myself though in racing games otherwise. This game had a lot of content available at the start too which was great as I love jumping into new racing games with Time Trials or other free racing modes just to get used to how the game handles as no two games handle quite the same, this game allowed me to do so without obstacles, only a select few high performance cars were locked away. There's even a split-screen mutliplayer mode with co-op and stuff in this game, I haven't seen luxury like that since the generation before it!

Sly Cooper - Thieves in Time (PlayStation 3)

Gaming purchases for November 2015

Due to a death in the family my gaming (along with pretty much everything else) has been on hold recently, but I did get to order some stuff online and shop for some stuff locally and ended up going on a minor shopping spree as far as videogames go, also some other non-gaming items but I'll just cover the gaming stuff here.

In total so far during the first half of November I've bought over 30 games and some additional gaming related stuff, most for Xbox 360 and PS3 but also some for Wii and even a couple for PC and one for PS2, well kinda, the one for PS2 was an old demo disc I didn't have with some games from 2001 to 2003. It was interesting to see demo versions of some of those games that I've had the full version of for so many years.

Here's what I got so far, November's not over yet so I may update this again if I end up with anything else before the month is over.

PS2:

*a demo disc

Wii:

Cursed Mountain

Dead Space Extraction

Disney Princess Enchanted Journey

Monster High 13 Wishes

Monster High Skultimate Roller Maze

Xbox 360:

Armored Core V Verdict Day

Killer is Dead Limited Edition

Section 8

Syndicate

The Darkness

The Darkness 2 Limited Edition

Winter Sports 2011 Go for Gold

PS3:

Battlefield 3

Deception IV Blood Ties

FIFA 08

Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Classics HD

inFamous

Killer is Dead Limited Edition

Mindjack

MotorStorm Pacific Rift

MotorStorm Apocalypse

**PlayStation Move Starter Disc

Sly Cooper Thieves in Time

Split/Second Velocity

The House of the Dead Overkill Extended Cut

The Shoot

The Sly Trilogy

PC:

Need for Speed Porsche 2000

Riverworld

Other:

Disney Infinity 3.0 Inside Out Disgust figure

Skylanders Drobot figure

Skylanders Stealth Elf figure

*Among much else the PS2 demo disc contained demos of for example Ratchet & Clank, a This if Football game, a WRC game and Stuntman and also video trailers of for example Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness and an Ape Escape game.

**The PS Move Starter Disc is a demo disc of PS Move games that usually follows the purchase of the PS Move Starter Pack.


UPDATE from 19th November

I went ahead and ordered some more games online.

PSX:
*B-Movie
Star Ixiom

PS2:
Dragon Rage
Gift
Headhunter
Wreckless - The Yakuza Missions

PSP:
Invizimals Shadow Zone (incl. Go!Cam)

GBA:
Madagascar
Star X
Tomb Raider - The Prophecy
**V-Rally 3 & Stuntman

GameCube:
XGIII Extreme G Racing (Extreme-G 3)
Shadow The Hedgehog
Sonic Adventure 2 - Battle (Player's Choice)
Wreckless - The Yakuza Missions

Xbox:
Rally Fusion - Race of Champions
Shadow The Hedgehog


*known as Invasion from Beyond in USA

**V-Rally 3 & Stuntman was a double pack with both games on one cartridge


I'm planning on making one more online order soon, maybe before November ends, otherwise it'll be part of the December purchases.