Dodgem Arena (PlayStation)
Newman Haas Indycar Racing (PlayStation)
Formula One (PlayStation)
Eragon (Game Boy Advance)
Unlike the PSP game which I enjoy greatly, this is a slow generic RPG style game with somewhat action-oriented turn-based combat, you press combos using A and B rather than select your move from a list, so it's like an extremely dumbed down and simplified Legend of Legaia or Xenogears type of system, it's not a bad game but I have fantastic RPGs to play, this has literally nothing that draws me in, it exclusively makes me want to play any of the countless better games that do the same kind of things endlessly better.
DT Racer (PlayStation 2)
Chip Shot Super Pro Golf (Intellivision, played as part of Intellivision Lives! on PlayStation 2)
Played this for Intellivision Day, December 3rd. I was originally planning to play lots of varied games and especially focusing on my favorite, Auto Racing, but I was away and busy most of the day so I didn't have time for that and decided to instead focus on some game I hadn't played that much that I still knew was good, and Chip Shot Super Pro Golf fit that criteria perfectly.
It's a really good golf game, one of if not the best I've ever played.
It's easy to get into and doesn't have any issues like more modern golf games and it's not as limited and basic as older and other contemporary games from back then were either, it's a virtually perfect mix of simple and to the point level of entry with just the right amount of complexity and advanced features to add the necessary depth for it to not get boring over time.
Auto Racing (Intellivision, played as part of Intellivision Lives! on PlayStation 2)
Set a new best time of 7:11 on my favorite track 3 with the red car.
Golf (Intellivision, played as part of Intellivision Lives! on PlayStation 2)
It's almost unplayable because of how the controls fail to emulate the analog disc of the Intellivision controller which is required for the aiming in this game, having only 8 directions to aim forces you to at least double, triple and even quadruple your amount of swings as you simply can't aim where you want and have to zig-zag and divide your swings up with the few directions you can aim in, it takes almost all enjoyment out of the game to say the least. Such a shame.
Chip Shot Super Pro Golf (Intellivision)
With the proper colors it's much easier to see the direction of the incline on the green and where the hole is, unlike in the Intellivision Lives! emulated version on PS2 which fucks up the colors pretty bad for this game in particular.
Soccer (Intellivision)
used it to test if my newly purchased INTV System III worked without any issues, everything seems to be working fine
Pac-Man (Intellivision)
Popeye (Intellivision)
BurgerTime! (Intellivision)
Auto Racing (Intellivision, emulated on PlayStation Portable)
It's embarrassing how insanely much better this emulates than the official Intellivision Lives! version on the stronger PlayStation 2 hardware. This emulator even emulates switching to the 2nd controller, making games like Auto Racing playable as it normally requires both controllers to start the game even in single player mode, while on PS2 you still need two controllers for that.
The emulator isn't perfect and there can be some glitches (especially with emulation speed being too fast, but a quick restart of the emulator fixes that and it only seems to occur after having been awakened from after being in sleep mode) and some games don't seem to work (not sure why but there seem to be some config file that is required by the emulator that I don't have set up properly, I'll look more into that in the future), but for now at least my beloved Auto Racing plays great and it's awesome to be able to play it properly and portable, I love it.
Super Mario Land (Game Boy)
Got some new batteries for my old Game Boy and playing through Super Mario Land a few times is a great way to get back into the Game Boy groove.
Smashing Drive (Game Boy Advance)
Finally getting to play this on real hardware, I've tried it emulated before and it seemed really interesting, it's a really fun arcade style checkpoint race and crash type game with over the top powerups and lots of action. It's a bit on the short side with only 4 levels but they multiple segments to them and each segment has alternate paths and secrets to find. I like it and will continue to look for a console version.
3D Rubik's Cube 2 (flash game on PC)
an excellent Rubik's Cube game for PC made entirely in flash
it had multiple sizes of cubes and full color customization for the different sides so you can get it just right, controls are also good and it plays smoothly even on my weak old PC
Here's a link to the .swf file: 3D Rubik's Cube 2
Night Stalker (Intellivision, played as part of Intellivision Lives! on PlayStation 2)
Shinobi (3DS)
A lackluster, low budget game in an otherwise great series. Controls are clunky, level design and enemy placement is awful, enemy respawning is annoying, pickups are either completely useless for gameplay (most just give a few points) or useless because they don't give what you need nor want (for example: after segments where you're guaranteed to take damage you get a shuriken throwing powerup or something instead of a health pickup, in other places after you've started a new level or something you get a full health pickup when you already have full health). The parry move that allows you to nullify enemy attacks is both laggy and hard to judge when you're executed, it also has lag frames after so you can't do it with every attack no matter how good you are at the timing, the game makes it completely useless when you're attacked multiple times in short succession, everything else you do also has a lag to it and lag frames after, so you're open to attacks almost constantly and there's no way to make it better, you can't improve your skills to overcome, it's just a bad game design limitation.
It also has shit poor checkpoints and you have to replay enormous parts of levels that are easily big enough to count as levels on their own all in one go, so even when playing on easy where you have infinite continues and the enemies are weaker than on normal or hard, it's still an extremely repetitive chore to play if you just happen to fall down an invisibly hidden insta-death pit after having gone through a whole huge area only to find that nope, there wasn't a single checkpoint anywhere during that place.
The visuals are literally on DS levels with unfiltered textures, low poly 3D detail and aliasing galore (even when turning off the stereoscopic effect), the framerated is also not perfect in stereoscopic mode (as is a common problem on 3DS, sadly) and the game is very dark and enemies and hazards don't stand out at all with little to no contrast from the environment and sometimes they're just plain hidden behind foreground objects making it literally impossible to avoid taking damage from their "suprise motherfucker" attacks, also touch damage on everything: touch an enemy's toe? take full damage as if he cut you with a sword.
All cut scenes are 2D cartoony video, as in 2D animated style and no 3D effects for the 3DS, despite this being a 3DS exclusive. I've played several multiplat games with custom 3DS stuff in them like the pre-rendered cutscenes being rendered with stereoscopic effects, but not in this exclusive 3DS title!
It offers an "easy" mode for beginners of the series that allows infinite continues and weaker enemies, as in normal and hard have limited lives and enemies you have to keep hitting until they die, constantly slowing the game to a crawl and making it artificially annoying that you have to restart the whole game if you run out of lives, it's as bad as old games only this had no excuse as it came out in modern times.
Sub Rebellion (PlayStation 2)
Basically a mix of AquaNox and Armored Core, two of my favorite games ever, so yeah this game is awesome. It's also made by Irem, makers of R-Type, so that's a triple treat right there!
Space Debris (PlayStation)
One of the finest third-person semi-on-rail shooters ever made.
Showing posts with label game boy advance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label game boy advance. Show all posts
Saturday, December 1, 2018
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Gaming Purchases - Februari 2017
Februari 22nd:
The first order of 2017 has arrived!
Mega Drive:
Kawasaki Superbikes
Game Boy Advance:
Hot Wheels Stunt Track Challenge
PlayStation:
Loaded
PlayStation 2:
Taito Legends 2
V-Rally 3
The first order of 2017 has arrived!
Mega Drive:
Kawasaki Superbikes
Game Boy Advance:
Hot Wheels Stunt Track Challenge
PlayStation:
Loaded
PlayStation 2:
Taito Legends 2
V-Rally 3
Thursday, February 2, 2017
Now Playing - Februari 2017
Started off februari with playing Conan on Xbox 360 again.
Conan (Xbox 360)
It holds up very well even now in 2017, 11 years after it came out. The only thing with any shortcomings at all is the visual part, but for a 2006 game it still looks great, with only minor specifics showing any sign of ageing, it's by no means an ugly game though. It's bloody and gory, action filled and with many uncensored topless women to shake your analog stick at.
Metal Gear Solid V Ground Zeroes (PlayStation 3)
Just playing around a bit. It's still no great game by any stretch, it remains an overhyped tech demo and mostly a bad one at that given all the glitches and limitations and stuff, but it's easy to come back to even if only for a short burst of gameplay every now and then.
Simple 1500 Vol. 91 The Gambler (PlayStation)
Just testing a random game, the gameplay was just betting on different gambling games and reading character dialog I didn't understand because it was all in japanese, a complete waste of time had it not been for a sexy big boobed lady in a red dress, that was at least something to look at every now and then.
Chaos Break (PlayStation)
A hidden gem survival horror third-person shooting action game with voice acting that challenges and maybe even surpasses the likes of Resident Evil, House of the Dead and CastleVania Symphony of the Night, yeah, it's that awesome. It plays very well, has some cool moves and such, I really like it a lot so far and will keep playing.
Speed King Neo Kobe 2045 (PlayStation)
Konami's attempt at futuristic hover racing. It's Stiff and ugly compared to even the first WipEout and it's a pure racing game with no pickups or other abilities, but it still feels like it manages to stay slightly above the level of some other games like it from those days. It's not great but it's at least something and I kinda wanna play some more and see if it gets better, I know there are some really cool unlockable ships like the Vic-Viper from Gradius so I at least wanna try to acquire that.
Die Hard Trilogy (PlayStation)
A classic I've been wanting to revisit for a while now, it's still tons of fun. I still love Die Harder the most, the on-rail shooter, it's so damn detailed and fun, I absolutely love it. Die Hard With A Vengeance, the driving game, remains my second favorite, I love just driving around causing havoc and finding cool hidden vehicles. Die Hard, the third-person shooter, remains the one I struggle with the most, it has great stuff in it but it also has some annoying parts, like the end-of-level bomb timers and the stiff controls, it's still good and fun for the most part though.
OutRun2 (Xbox, playing on Xbox 360)
A modern classic and it holds up well, it runs a bit less smoothly on Xbox 360 than it does on original Xbox but is still fully playable and enjoyable.
OutRun (Arcade, playing in OutRun2 on Xbox 360)
The arcade original is an unlockable for OutRun2 on Xbox. I never got to try this on my original Xbox before it died but when played on Xbox 360 there are some visual glitches with sprites not lining up correctly, beside that it runs smoothly and as it should and it's still fully playable.
Robin Hood Prince of Thieves (Entertainment System)
One of the first game I ever got and a favorite to this day, incredible game with varied and incredibly deep gameplay, great music, great visuals, smooth controls and a story that makes most RPGs at the time and for many years that followed look shallow by comparison, and it's a movie licensed 8-bit generation game doing this!! It defies all logic in the best possible ways.
Earthworm Jim (Mega Drive)
This game was fun back in the day and it's still fun, slightly better than I recall if anything.
Earthworm Jim (Super Nintendo)
This version usually gets the short straw after the Mega Drive version gets all the love, but I honestly can't pick a winner, they both have things the other lacks and in my book it's an even draw.
GoldenEye Rogue Agent (Xbox, playing on Xbox 360)
Damn this game is good, I love the manual dual wielding system of your weapons, the weapons themselves and the visuals look great. To date it's the only game with GoldenEye in the title that I like, if only the other games were anywhere near this good.
Kawasaki Superbikes (Mega Drive)
Finally got this game for myself, it's really good, with impressive flat-shaded polygonal 3D visuals and good driving physics and everything, there's even a turbo mode where the sprites are made smaller to make the game run faster if you wish to have a harder challenge and better sense of speed, I love this addition, it reminds me of the turbo mode in the excellent RollCage on PlayStation.
Hot Wheels Stunt Track Challenge (Game Boy Advance)
A very enjoyable and competent polygonal 3D racing game, similar to Lego Drome Racers in many ways. Unlike Drome Racers however the cars in Stunt Track Challenge are fully polygonal and even texture mapped, in Drome Racers all the cars were multi-sided sprites and only the tracks were polygonal. There's a stunt trick system that grants points and turbo boost power and there are offensive and defensive pickups. Thankfully the trick system in this is a much better way to bring variety and depth to the gameplay than the downright awful drag racing mode in Drome Racers.
Kill.Switch (Game Boy Advance)
A third-person 3D game, very technically impressive, but I'm not quite falling for it, maybe if I give it some more time.
Blades of Thunder (Game Boy Advance)
A 3D helicopter on-rail action shooting game, very enjoyable, reminds me a whole lot of the excellent Super Hind on PSP.
Monster Truck Madness (Game Boy Advance)
A rather enjoyable Monster Truck game with good gameplay and impressive 3D visuals.
Monster Trucks (Game Boy Advance)
An average game with some average 3D visuals and very little else to offer.
Monster Trucks Mayhem (Game Boy Advance)
An awful game with bad 3D visuals with nothing of value to offer.
Smashing Drive (Game Boy Advance)
It's choppy but it's still one of the more impressive 3D titles with lots of stuff to drive and smash through, featuring fully polygonal and texture mapped levels and vehicles.
V-Rally 3 (PlayStation 2)
After having enjoyed the fantastic GBA port for so many years it's at the very least interesting to finally get to play the proper console version, though so far it hasn't exactly impressed me, it looks fairly nice but there are downsides like minor stuttering in the framerate, minor screen tearing, no real-time reflections on the car and no controller configuration options whatsoever while not using the right analog stick at all and instead using X to accelerate, square to brake and circle to handbrake, to say the least it feels very archaic using this setup for a PS2 game even if the game is a relatively early release for the system having come out in 2001. The cars look nice though and the environments look on par with other rally racers of the time so it's not all bad. I guess I've just been spoiled by how good the GBA version was and how it pushed that system while this version on PS2 is far below what the PS2 can handle, even other rally games at the time were pushing the PS2 at least a little harder than this with better results.
Loaded (PlayStation)
Ah, the original Loaded, I loved this game back in the day and finally have a copy of my very own. I still love the sequel even more but this is an excellent game nonetheless and both are worthy additions to any PSX owner's library.
Taito Legends 2 (PlayStation 2)
A rather good collection with some excellent games included, and with heavy hitters such as RayStorm and G-Darius as PS2 exclusives this is the version to get I'd say, the emulation is also slightly better than in the Xbox version which was ported by another team of programmers using unoptimized M.A.M.E. emulation instead.
Elasto Mania (PC)
Haven't played this in 15 years, started playing, soon I had already set some new records. Good games never really leave your system even when you're apart for ages.
Conan (Xbox 360)
It holds up very well even now in 2017, 11 years after it came out. The only thing with any shortcomings at all is the visual part, but for a 2006 game it still looks great, with only minor specifics showing any sign of ageing, it's by no means an ugly game though. It's bloody and gory, action filled and with many uncensored topless women to shake your analog stick at.
Metal Gear Solid V Ground Zeroes (PlayStation 3)
Just playing around a bit. It's still no great game by any stretch, it remains an overhyped tech demo and mostly a bad one at that given all the glitches and limitations and stuff, but it's easy to come back to even if only for a short burst of gameplay every now and then.
Simple 1500 Vol. 91 The Gambler (PlayStation)
Just testing a random game, the gameplay was just betting on different gambling games and reading character dialog I didn't understand because it was all in japanese, a complete waste of time had it not been for a sexy big boobed lady in a red dress, that was at least something to look at every now and then.
Chaos Break (PlayStation)
A hidden gem survival horror third-person shooting action game with voice acting that challenges and maybe even surpasses the likes of Resident Evil, House of the Dead and CastleVania Symphony of the Night, yeah, it's that awesome. It plays very well, has some cool moves and such, I really like it a lot so far and will keep playing.
Speed King Neo Kobe 2045 (PlayStation)
Konami's attempt at futuristic hover racing. It's Stiff and ugly compared to even the first WipEout and it's a pure racing game with no pickups or other abilities, but it still feels like it manages to stay slightly above the level of some other games like it from those days. It's not great but it's at least something and I kinda wanna play some more and see if it gets better, I know there are some really cool unlockable ships like the Vic-Viper from Gradius so I at least wanna try to acquire that.
Die Hard Trilogy (PlayStation)
A classic I've been wanting to revisit for a while now, it's still tons of fun. I still love Die Harder the most, the on-rail shooter, it's so damn detailed and fun, I absolutely love it. Die Hard With A Vengeance, the driving game, remains my second favorite, I love just driving around causing havoc and finding cool hidden vehicles. Die Hard, the third-person shooter, remains the one I struggle with the most, it has great stuff in it but it also has some annoying parts, like the end-of-level bomb timers and the stiff controls, it's still good and fun for the most part though.
OutRun2 (Xbox, playing on Xbox 360)
A modern classic and it holds up well, it runs a bit less smoothly on Xbox 360 than it does on original Xbox but is still fully playable and enjoyable.
OutRun (Arcade, playing in OutRun2 on Xbox 360)
The arcade original is an unlockable for OutRun2 on Xbox. I never got to try this on my original Xbox before it died but when played on Xbox 360 there are some visual glitches with sprites not lining up correctly, beside that it runs smoothly and as it should and it's still fully playable.
Robin Hood Prince of Thieves (Entertainment System)
One of the first game I ever got and a favorite to this day, incredible game with varied and incredibly deep gameplay, great music, great visuals, smooth controls and a story that makes most RPGs at the time and for many years that followed look shallow by comparison, and it's a movie licensed 8-bit generation game doing this!! It defies all logic in the best possible ways.
Earthworm Jim (Mega Drive)
This game was fun back in the day and it's still fun, slightly better than I recall if anything.
Earthworm Jim (Super Nintendo)
This version usually gets the short straw after the Mega Drive version gets all the love, but I honestly can't pick a winner, they both have things the other lacks and in my book it's an even draw.
GoldenEye Rogue Agent (Xbox, playing on Xbox 360)
Damn this game is good, I love the manual dual wielding system of your weapons, the weapons themselves and the visuals look great. To date it's the only game with GoldenEye in the title that I like, if only the other games were anywhere near this good.
Kawasaki Superbikes (Mega Drive)
Finally got this game for myself, it's really good, with impressive flat-shaded polygonal 3D visuals and good driving physics and everything, there's even a turbo mode where the sprites are made smaller to make the game run faster if you wish to have a harder challenge and better sense of speed, I love this addition, it reminds me of the turbo mode in the excellent RollCage on PlayStation.
Hot Wheels Stunt Track Challenge (Game Boy Advance)
A very enjoyable and competent polygonal 3D racing game, similar to Lego Drome Racers in many ways. Unlike Drome Racers however the cars in Stunt Track Challenge are fully polygonal and even texture mapped, in Drome Racers all the cars were multi-sided sprites and only the tracks were polygonal. There's a stunt trick system that grants points and turbo boost power and there are offensive and defensive pickups. Thankfully the trick system in this is a much better way to bring variety and depth to the gameplay than the downright awful drag racing mode in Drome Racers.
Kill.Switch (Game Boy Advance)
A third-person 3D game, very technically impressive, but I'm not quite falling for it, maybe if I give it some more time.
Blades of Thunder (Game Boy Advance)
A 3D helicopter on-rail action shooting game, very enjoyable, reminds me a whole lot of the excellent Super Hind on PSP.
Monster Truck Madness (Game Boy Advance)
A rather enjoyable Monster Truck game with good gameplay and impressive 3D visuals.
Monster Trucks (Game Boy Advance)
An average game with some average 3D visuals and very little else to offer.
Monster Trucks Mayhem (Game Boy Advance)
An awful game with bad 3D visuals with nothing of value to offer.
Smashing Drive (Game Boy Advance)
It's choppy but it's still one of the more impressive 3D titles with lots of stuff to drive and smash through, featuring fully polygonal and texture mapped levels and vehicles.
V-Rally 3 (PlayStation 2)
After having enjoyed the fantastic GBA port for so many years it's at the very least interesting to finally get to play the proper console version, though so far it hasn't exactly impressed me, it looks fairly nice but there are downsides like minor stuttering in the framerate, minor screen tearing, no real-time reflections on the car and no controller configuration options whatsoever while not using the right analog stick at all and instead using X to accelerate, square to brake and circle to handbrake, to say the least it feels very archaic using this setup for a PS2 game even if the game is a relatively early release for the system having come out in 2001. The cars look nice though and the environments look on par with other rally racers of the time so it's not all bad. I guess I've just been spoiled by how good the GBA version was and how it pushed that system while this version on PS2 is far below what the PS2 can handle, even other rally games at the time were pushing the PS2 at least a little harder than this with better results.
Loaded (PlayStation)
Ah, the original Loaded, I loved this game back in the day and finally have a copy of my very own. I still love the sequel even more but this is an excellent game nonetheless and both are worthy additions to any PSX owner's library.
Taito Legends 2 (PlayStation 2)
A rather good collection with some excellent games included, and with heavy hitters such as RayStorm and G-Darius as PS2 exclusives this is the version to get I'd say, the emulation is also slightly better than in the Xbox version which was ported by another team of programmers using unoptimized M.A.M.E. emulation instead.
Elasto Mania (PC)
Haven't played this in 15 years, started playing, soon I had already set some new records. Good games never really leave your system even when you're apart for ages.
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Gaming Purchases - February 2016
February 10th:
Ordered some games and stuff online again. All new and sealed this time, nothing used/pre-owned/second.hand.
PlayStation 2:
Burnout Dominator (Platinum)
Stitch Experiment 626
Operation Air Assault 2
Amiibo:
Fox (Super Smash Bros.)
Peach (Super Mario Collection)
Zero Suit Samus (Super Smash Bros.)
Disney Infinity:
Jasmine (2.0)
February 11th:
Ordered some additional games from the same place. All new, all sealed, nothing used/pre-owned/second-hand.
PlayStation 2:
Kart Racer
MotorStorm Arctic Edge
Truck Racer
February 16th:
Was out shopping with a friend today and found some Disney Infinity on sale half price off, also some other bargain bin stuff.
Disney Infinity:
Disgust (3.0, Inside Out)
Minnie Mouse (3.0)
Mulan (3.0)
Quorra (3.0, Tron Legacy)
Sadness (3.0, Inside Out)
Bluray+DVD:
The Croods
PC:
Trust optical mouse
Other:
cable splitter components
February 23rd:
Was out shopping today, picked up some collectibles.
DVD:
Prince of Persia Sands of Time
Collectibles:
Welly - Back to the Future - 1985 DeLorean DMC-12 Time Machine
Bamse figure pack - Granny, Sooty and the house mouse
Disney's Cars 2 - Shigeko
Disney's Cars 2 - Suki
February 24th:
Placed an order online for some stuff.
Hardware:
a Sega Mega Drive II console
a Sega Mega CD II console add-on
a Sega 32X console add-on
a RetroPad 6-button Mega Drive controller
Mega Drive:
Steel Talons
Winter Challenge
Game Boy Advance:
Sega Arcade Gallery (Afterburner, Space Harrier, OutRun and Super Hang On)
PlayStation:
O.D.T. Escape Or Die Trying
PlayStation 2:
Dead or Alive 2 (promo)
Mercury Meltdown Remix
Transformers (the 2004 game based on the animated Transformers Armada series)
Worms 3D
WRC3
February 25th:
Placed another order online for some other stuff.
Hardware:
three replacement glass screens for Game Boy Advance
three Wormlights for Game Boy Advance
two extension cables for PlayStation/PlayStation 2 controllers
an S-Video cable for Xbox 360
a VGA to S-Video and composite RCA converter (NOT a signal converter like I thought it was, just a simple connector converter, the graphics card needs to have S-Video/composite signal over VGA for this thing to work or the image is scrambled and won't show properly on S-Video/composite compatible devices like TVs or projectors, bummer for me as I was hoping to play my PC games on my TV with a controller rather than on the PC monitor as always)
February 25th:
While not a gaming purchase exactly I still like to include little things like this because there are plenty of games related to it, especially in this case with the thing being both LEGO and Star Wars.
LEGO:
LEGO Star Wars magazine with limited edition Millennium Falcon set
Ordered some games and stuff online again. All new and sealed this time, nothing used/pre-owned/second.hand.
PlayStation 2:
Burnout Dominator (Platinum)
Stitch Experiment 626
Operation Air Assault 2
Amiibo:
Fox (Super Smash Bros.)
Peach (Super Mario Collection)
Zero Suit Samus (Super Smash Bros.)
Disney Infinity:
Jasmine (2.0)
February 11th:
Ordered some additional games from the same place. All new, all sealed, nothing used/pre-owned/second-hand.
PlayStation 2:
Kart Racer
MotorStorm Arctic Edge
Truck Racer
February 16th:
Was out shopping with a friend today and found some Disney Infinity on sale half price off, also some other bargain bin stuff.
Disney Infinity:
Disgust (3.0, Inside Out)
Minnie Mouse (3.0)
Mulan (3.0)
Quorra (3.0, Tron Legacy)
Sadness (3.0, Inside Out)
Bluray+DVD:
The Croods
PC:
Trust optical mouse
Other:
cable splitter components
February 23rd:
Was out shopping today, picked up some collectibles.
DVD:
Prince of Persia Sands of Time
Collectibles:
Welly - Back to the Future - 1985 DeLorean DMC-12 Time Machine
Bamse figure pack - Granny, Sooty and the house mouse
Disney's Cars 2 - Shigeko
Disney's Cars 2 - Suki
February 24th:
Placed an order online for some stuff.
Hardware:
a Sega Mega Drive II console
a Sega Mega CD II console add-on
a Sega 32X console add-on
a RetroPad 6-button Mega Drive controller
Mega Drive:
Steel Talons
Winter Challenge
Game Boy Advance:
Sega Arcade Gallery (Afterburner, Space Harrier, OutRun and Super Hang On)
PlayStation:
O.D.T. Escape Or Die Trying
PlayStation 2:
Dead or Alive 2 (promo)
Mercury Meltdown Remix
Transformers (the 2004 game based on the animated Transformers Armada series)
Worms 3D
WRC3
February 25th:
Placed another order online for some other stuff.
Hardware:
three replacement glass screens for Game Boy Advance
three Wormlights for Game Boy Advance
two extension cables for PlayStation/PlayStation 2 controllers
an S-Video cable for Xbox 360
a VGA to S-Video and composite RCA converter (NOT a signal converter like I thought it was, just a simple connector converter, the graphics card needs to have S-Video/composite signal over VGA for this thing to work or the image is scrambled and won't show properly on S-Video/composite compatible devices like TVs or projectors, bummer for me as I was hoping to play my PC games on my TV with a controller rather than on the PC monitor as always)
February 25th:
While not a gaming purchase exactly I still like to include little things like this because there are plenty of games related to it, especially in this case with the thing being both LEGO and Star Wars.
LEGO:
LEGO Star Wars magazine with limited edition Millennium Falcon set
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Now Playing - February 2016
Some recent purchases dominate the playlist at the moment.
Offroad Extreme (Wii)
A game released on PlayStation 2 in Europe by infamous publisherPhoenix Games, the Wii port offers as far as I know the same game only with forced motion controls.
Sounds like a recipe for disaster of epic proportions, right? Yes, yes it most certainly does, but alas it's a moderately entertaining racer and the motion controls are honestly pretty good, they're responsive and do what they need without complications.
I usually hate motion controls but in select few games I can tolerate them depending on how detrimental they are to the game. In this game I felt they were minimally detrimental, so kudos for that.
It's hard to tell if this was better on PS2 using normal controls without having played it myself, but I had little to no problems winning races and staying on track even when maneuvering through tricky thin mountainside roads where you could easily fall off the side down bottomless pits having to reset to the track costing precious seconds.
Hell, there are plenty of games I have problems staying on the road in even with normal controls let alone in other motion controlled atrocities, yet somehow this super low budget port of a PS2 Phoenix Games release manages to pull it off rather nicely. Colour me vaguely impressed, I guess.
It falls short in other apartments, of course, the visuals for example are rather unimpressive even by early Dreamcast and PS2 standards. They might've been passable as good on the generation before that but it's a budget game so I won't tear it a new one for such shallow reasons.
It has some minor bugs as well, like glitching through or getting stuck in the scenery, nothing major as you'll reset back on track and get back in the race fairly quickly, but it can become annoying if it happens frequently, say during moment when the AI gangs up on you.
There is one thing the game does that baffles me though, in the Time Trial mode it doesn't save your lap times or ghosts, so everytime you go back to beat your old times they've all been reset to 0 and the ghost is nowhere to be found.
On PS2 this would've been bad enough seeing as memory cards were pretty much an industry standard at that point, but on Wii they added the internal memory, and the game saves other progress like money earned and what you've unlocked, so clearly they knew how to program an autosave feature! I started writing down my lap times on sticky notes I put on the inside of the game box, old school style, because of this.
It's not something I would say ruins the entire game, it's a minor inconvenience I doubt most people will care that much about anyway, but it could've easily been fixed and personally I care a lot more about that in racing games than any championship or career mode, so it's a shame.
The game's been panned and scored pretty low by online reviewers (IGN gave it a 1/10) and youtubers alike, but I feel it deserves better than that, it simply isn't that bad, I'd give it a genuine "good" rating, say 3-3.5/5. I'm having fun playing it, I like the tracks and the gameplay is good enough to keep me entertained.
You have a damage bar and repair pickups so offensive and defensive gameplay styles matter, there are nitro pickups as well as speed strips for extra speed and it's even playable in 2 player split screen, which is more than can be said about most racing games these days having singleplayer and online modes only.
So in conclusion I've been positively surprised by this game, it had everything going against it being a good game but somehow I'm having fun with it. I even paid a pretty hefty price for it, 11 dollars and 59 cents apparently (roughly converted to US dollars using xe.com).
A youtube video mentioned they had purchased it for just a couple of dollars brand new, so I really overpaid for a second hand copy when compared to that. I wouldn't say I overpaid though, I was fully willing to pay the asking price and I feel got my money's worth, it made me dust off my Wii after several months of neglect after all.
Ridge Racer Unbounded (PlayStation 3)
I'm disappointed in more ways that I can express in words. It's a game from a series I expected more from and it's by a developer I expected more from.
It's got an unstable framerate, there's only one car and one track to use and the unlocking is brutal and made specifically to be drawn out, slow, grinding, tedious and arbitrarily difficult, there are tons of load times and they all feel longer than general for the same kind of things in other games, the controls are pretty bad and have little to no options for change, the AI is cheating, overly perfect and brutal, there's no multiplayer at all (it has singleplayer and an online mode but from what I've read it never took off and had severe issues that didn't get patched for ages, I don't do online so I can't report on the current state of it) and the custom mode where you get to put together your own track still doesn't have anything more to use than what is unlocked in singleplayer, so again only one car and parts of one track are available.
It's a shame all these issues break the game so completely as it also has some stuff other games in the series lack, like track destruction somewhat similar to Split/Second and MotorStorm Apocalypse.
It also has nice visuals overall, it's just too bad the framerate isn't able to show them properly.
Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots (PlayStation 3)
I'm not a fan of the series in general but some of them have been alright; the original on PSX, Portable Ops and Peace Walker on PSP and Ground Zeroes on 360 all had their moments.
I didn't really like 2 and 3 at all and I haven't had the opportunity to give Phantom Pain a go yet, from what I've seen from Let's Plays however it doesn't look like I'd enjoy it, so I'm not in any rush to play it.
I'm rather indifferent toward the GameCube remake of the original, Twin Snakes or whatever it was called, I haven't had much exposure to it in later years so my memories of it have faded.
4 holds up well though, for such an early PS3 game the only technical complaint I have are the many low res textures.
Race PRO (Xbox 360)
Won some more races in the career mode.
LEGO Drome Racers (Game Boy Advance)
Truck Racer (PlayStation 2)
A budget game published by Nordic Games where you drive different types of trucks, like a semi, a pickup, a monster truck, a fire engine, a hummer and even a van, so it's at least varied in the types of vehicles you get to drive, almost a little like MotorStorm or something.
I like it, the framerate isn't super solid but it hasn't dipped too low, it seems to at least be able to stay above the 25fps mark, which is perfectly playable.
I like the handling of the cars, you can do some nice powerslides and the turbo is very similar the one you have in MotorStorm where you use it as you please and it fills back up, though in this game you don't explode after using it all up, it just refills again like normal.
Visually it's not too bad, you have real time damage on the cars and they all have enough detail to at least look like what they're suppose to be even if some textures are low res and stuff like trees and other background object are copied and pasted a lot.
I like the way you unlock new trucks and tracks, you actually get to manually pick what you want to unlock, then you get a challenge for it, for trucks you have to use the truck you want unlocked against a similar truck and win in a one on one race to unlock it, as for new tracks you need to beat a set time trial, you get infinite laps to do it but unless you've unlocked a suitable truck first it can be very hard to get around the track fast enough. I'm not a fan of stuff being locked away in racing games to begin with and even less so when there are no cheat codes to unlock everything with either, but I can be merciful in my judgement if the game at least makes up for it somehow, and I feel this game made unlocking stuff enough of my choice as a player that it's not a big deal. If I want a specific track or truck I can race for it without having to go through some arbitrary championship or something similar like so many other racing games force the player to do, here it's just go for it and get your reward for the work you put it, it's more direct, less diluted, and I welcome that. Games like Gran Turismo, Forza, MotorStorm, Ridge Racer and the like could learn a lot from games like this. Not bad for a little budget title, not bad at all.
Super Mario Bros. (Entertainment System)
Super Mario Bros. 2 (Entertainment System)
Super Mario Bros. 3 (Entertainment System)
Been playing a lot of new games lately so decided to replay the classic Super Mario Bros. trilogy on Entertainment System.
F1 World Championship (Mega Drive)
I love old games with 3D graphics so I've been playing a lot of different games on [mostly] Mega Drive that had flat-shaded polygon or other types of early 3D graphics.
Newman Haas IndyCar Featuring Nigel Mansell (Mega Drive)
Kawasaki Superbike Challenge (Mega Drive)
Sega Sports Formula One World Championship Beyond The Limit (Mega CD)
Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker (Mega Drive)
Thunder Blade (PC Engine)
Super Thunder Blade (Mega Drive)
Steel Talons (Mega Drive)
Gunship (PlayStation)
Also been playing a lot of old helicopter games.
Sega Arcade Gallery (Game Boy Advance)
I'm only playing Space Harrier in this, I was never a big fan of Hang On, OutRun or Afterburner.
Offroad Extreme (Wii)
A game released on PlayStation 2 in Europe by infamous publisherPhoenix Games, the Wii port offers as far as I know the same game only with forced motion controls.
Sounds like a recipe for disaster of epic proportions, right? Yes, yes it most certainly does, but alas it's a moderately entertaining racer and the motion controls are honestly pretty good, they're responsive and do what they need without complications.
I usually hate motion controls but in select few games I can tolerate them depending on how detrimental they are to the game. In this game I felt they were minimally detrimental, so kudos for that.
It's hard to tell if this was better on PS2 using normal controls without having played it myself, but I had little to no problems winning races and staying on track even when maneuvering through tricky thin mountainside roads where you could easily fall off the side down bottomless pits having to reset to the track costing precious seconds.
Hell, there are plenty of games I have problems staying on the road in even with normal controls let alone in other motion controlled atrocities, yet somehow this super low budget port of a PS2 Phoenix Games release manages to pull it off rather nicely. Colour me vaguely impressed, I guess.
It falls short in other apartments, of course, the visuals for example are rather unimpressive even by early Dreamcast and PS2 standards. They might've been passable as good on the generation before that but it's a budget game so I won't tear it a new one for such shallow reasons.
It has some minor bugs as well, like glitching through or getting stuck in the scenery, nothing major as you'll reset back on track and get back in the race fairly quickly, but it can become annoying if it happens frequently, say during moment when the AI gangs up on you.
There is one thing the game does that baffles me though, in the Time Trial mode it doesn't save your lap times or ghosts, so everytime you go back to beat your old times they've all been reset to 0 and the ghost is nowhere to be found.
On PS2 this would've been bad enough seeing as memory cards were pretty much an industry standard at that point, but on Wii they added the internal memory, and the game saves other progress like money earned and what you've unlocked, so clearly they knew how to program an autosave feature! I started writing down my lap times on sticky notes I put on the inside of the game box, old school style, because of this.
It's not something I would say ruins the entire game, it's a minor inconvenience I doubt most people will care that much about anyway, but it could've easily been fixed and personally I care a lot more about that in racing games than any championship or career mode, so it's a shame.
The game's been panned and scored pretty low by online reviewers (IGN gave it a 1/10) and youtubers alike, but I feel it deserves better than that, it simply isn't that bad, I'd give it a genuine "good" rating, say 3-3.5/5. I'm having fun playing it, I like the tracks and the gameplay is good enough to keep me entertained.
You have a damage bar and repair pickups so offensive and defensive gameplay styles matter, there are nitro pickups as well as speed strips for extra speed and it's even playable in 2 player split screen, which is more than can be said about most racing games these days having singleplayer and online modes only.
So in conclusion I've been positively surprised by this game, it had everything going against it being a good game but somehow I'm having fun with it. I even paid a pretty hefty price for it, 11 dollars and 59 cents apparently (roughly converted to US dollars using xe.com).
A youtube video mentioned they had purchased it for just a couple of dollars brand new, so I really overpaid for a second hand copy when compared to that. I wouldn't say I overpaid though, I was fully willing to pay the asking price and I feel got my money's worth, it made me dust off my Wii after several months of neglect after all.
Ridge Racer Unbounded (PlayStation 3)
I'm disappointed in more ways that I can express in words. It's a game from a series I expected more from and it's by a developer I expected more from.
It's got an unstable framerate, there's only one car and one track to use and the unlocking is brutal and made specifically to be drawn out, slow, grinding, tedious and arbitrarily difficult, there are tons of load times and they all feel longer than general for the same kind of things in other games, the controls are pretty bad and have little to no options for change, the AI is cheating, overly perfect and brutal, there's no multiplayer at all (it has singleplayer and an online mode but from what I've read it never took off and had severe issues that didn't get patched for ages, I don't do online so I can't report on the current state of it) and the custom mode where you get to put together your own track still doesn't have anything more to use than what is unlocked in singleplayer, so again only one car and parts of one track are available.
It's a shame all these issues break the game so completely as it also has some stuff other games in the series lack, like track destruction somewhat similar to Split/Second and MotorStorm Apocalypse.
It also has nice visuals overall, it's just too bad the framerate isn't able to show them properly.
Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots (PlayStation 3)
I'm not a fan of the series in general but some of them have been alright; the original on PSX, Portable Ops and Peace Walker on PSP and Ground Zeroes on 360 all had their moments.
I didn't really like 2 and 3 at all and I haven't had the opportunity to give Phantom Pain a go yet, from what I've seen from Let's Plays however it doesn't look like I'd enjoy it, so I'm not in any rush to play it.
I'm rather indifferent toward the GameCube remake of the original, Twin Snakes or whatever it was called, I haven't had much exposure to it in later years so my memories of it have faded.
4 holds up well though, for such an early PS3 game the only technical complaint I have are the many low res textures.
Race PRO (Xbox 360)
Won some more races in the career mode.
LEGO Drome Racers (Game Boy Advance)
Truck Racer (PlayStation 2)
A budget game published by Nordic Games where you drive different types of trucks, like a semi, a pickup, a monster truck, a fire engine, a hummer and even a van, so it's at least varied in the types of vehicles you get to drive, almost a little like MotorStorm or something.
I like it, the framerate isn't super solid but it hasn't dipped too low, it seems to at least be able to stay above the 25fps mark, which is perfectly playable.
I like the handling of the cars, you can do some nice powerslides and the turbo is very similar the one you have in MotorStorm where you use it as you please and it fills back up, though in this game you don't explode after using it all up, it just refills again like normal.
Visually it's not too bad, you have real time damage on the cars and they all have enough detail to at least look like what they're suppose to be even if some textures are low res and stuff like trees and other background object are copied and pasted a lot.
I like the way you unlock new trucks and tracks, you actually get to manually pick what you want to unlock, then you get a challenge for it, for trucks you have to use the truck you want unlocked against a similar truck and win in a one on one race to unlock it, as for new tracks you need to beat a set time trial, you get infinite laps to do it but unless you've unlocked a suitable truck first it can be very hard to get around the track fast enough. I'm not a fan of stuff being locked away in racing games to begin with and even less so when there are no cheat codes to unlock everything with either, but I can be merciful in my judgement if the game at least makes up for it somehow, and I feel this game made unlocking stuff enough of my choice as a player that it's not a big deal. If I want a specific track or truck I can race for it without having to go through some arbitrary championship or something similar like so many other racing games force the player to do, here it's just go for it and get your reward for the work you put it, it's more direct, less diluted, and I welcome that. Games like Gran Turismo, Forza, MotorStorm, Ridge Racer and the like could learn a lot from games like this. Not bad for a little budget title, not bad at all.
Super Mario Bros. (Entertainment System)
Super Mario Bros. 2 (Entertainment System)
Super Mario Bros. 3 (Entertainment System)
Been playing a lot of new games lately so decided to replay the classic Super Mario Bros. trilogy on Entertainment System.
F1 World Championship (Mega Drive)
I love old games with 3D graphics so I've been playing a lot of different games on [mostly] Mega Drive that had flat-shaded polygon or other types of early 3D graphics.
Newman Haas IndyCar Featuring Nigel Mansell (Mega Drive)
Kawasaki Superbike Challenge (Mega Drive)
Sega Sports Formula One World Championship Beyond The Limit (Mega CD)
Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker (Mega Drive)
Thunder Blade (PC Engine)
Super Thunder Blade (Mega Drive)
Steel Talons (Mega Drive)
Gunship (PlayStation)
Also been playing a lot of old helicopter games.
Sega Arcade Gallery (Game Boy Advance)
I'm only playing Space Harrier in this, I was never a big fan of Hang On, OutRun or Afterburner.
Monday, December 7, 2015
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)
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)
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Now Playing - November 2015
Because of the death in the family I haven't played much games recently but I have started playing a bit now that things have settled a bit, mostly old PSX games.
Grudge Warriors (PlayStation)
A tank buggy vehicle combat mission based game not too unlike Red Dog Superior Firepower on Dreamcast. Great fun driving around blasting stuff and has a good multiplayer mode as well, again much like Red Dog. The singleplayer game is hard and unforgiving as you can only refill your armor, not your health, with very limited refill stations scattered around the levels, thankfully you can save between levels but it's still easy to get stuck as the game not only has tough enemies and bosses but also incorporates exploration to find everything, kind of like a Metroid game, many a player have been stuck in their tracks not being able to find their way in this game even if they've been able to take care of the enemy forces.
Grandia (PlayStation)
On the Rule 34 chat we were talking about games and Grandia came up, I felt like replaying it a bit, still a great game, I do wish they would've taken a bit more care of the port from Saturn though as there are manu minor flaws to be found, nothing that braks the game or changes the gameplay but lots of visual stuff, like textures facing in the wrong direction, abcent shadows, abcent sky textures and some abcent 3D geometry here and there, also some other stuff like the water effect the Saturn version had but that's at least understandable seeing as there's a genuine difference in the hardware between the two machines. Thanfully the PSX port did get some enhancements to make up for the shortcomings, like better shadows for the characters, better looking screen effect when going into battles, some more advanced smoke and steam effects and of course being in English and released worldwide unlike the unfortunately Japanese exclusive Saturn version, so I think the PSX version still holds up nicely with those pros over the admittedly minor cons. A great game regardless and every PSX gamer with even the slightest interest in RPGs should give this game a try.
On the Rule 34 chat we were talking about games and Grandia came up, I felt like replaying it a bit, still a great game, I do wish they would've taken a bit more care of the port from Saturn though as there are manu minor flaws to be found, nothing that braks the game or changes the gameplay but lots of visual stuff, like textures facing in the wrong direction, abcent shadows, abcent sky textures and some abcent 3D geometry here and there, also some other stuff like the water effect the Saturn version had but that's at least understandable seeing as there's a genuine difference in the hardware between the two machines. Thanfully the PSX port did get some enhancements to make up for the shortcomings, like better shadows for the characters, better looking screen effect when going into battles, some more advanced smoke and steam effects and of course being in English and released worldwide unlike the unfortunately Japanese exclusive Saturn version, so I think the PSX version still holds up nicely with those pros over the admittedly minor cons. A great game regardless and every PSX gamer with even the slightest interest in RPGs should give this game a try.
Grudge Warriors (PlayStation)
A tank buggy vehicle combat mission based game not too unlike Red Dog Superior Firepower on Dreamcast. Great fun driving around blasting stuff and has a good multiplayer mode as well, again much like Red Dog. The singleplayer game is hard and unforgiving as you can only refill your armor, not your health, with very limited refill stations scattered around the levels, thankfully you can save between levels but it's still easy to get stuck as the game not only has tough enemies and bosses but also incorporates exploration to find everything, kind of like a Metroid game, many a player have been stuck in their tracks not being able to find their way in this game even if they've been able to take care of the enemy forces.
Medal of Honor & Medal of Honor Underground (PlayStation)
They both hold up rather well, they're not perfect games but arguably two of the better FPSs of the 32-bit generation.
The Adventures of Mighty Max (Mega Drive)
A platformer based on the toyline with little playsets in the shape of monsters and stuff, a favorite toyline from my childhood to say the least, sadly I never got to play the game or watch the animated series as a kid but after having spent some time with the game and seen some clips of the show on youtube it appears I didn't miss anything important, the toys were easily the strong part of the franchise as the game is rather mediocre and not particularly well designed with questionable levels and controls and the cartoon looks rather cheap as well. Not an awful game but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone but the most old school fans of the toys like myself, I enjoy it to a bit but it got old really fast with repetitive gameplay and levels with so little variation at first I thought I had done something wrong and started the same level over again, but nope, it's the next level alright, they just didn't change a whole lot is all.
Cat Planet (PC)
A free downloadable 2D platformer type of game where you must manuever a girl with angel wings around a planet called Cat Planet inhabited by little cat planet cats that you need to find, 67 of them in tital. It's kind of a speedrunning game where you replay it often to get a better time with as few deaths as possible, you have unlimited lives. I've been able to average a time of about 5 minutes with 2-3 deaths which is an okay score I think, not world record material but I play it more for fun than serious business and my computer isn't strong so the game has a lot of slowdown despite being a rather simplistic 2D game with very barebone visuals, it's all about the programming I guess.
Cat Poke (PC)
In similar fasion to Cat Planet this is a little free downloadable game where you play as a little girl who can't go out and play because it's raining outside, so she decised to poke all the cats the in the house to pass the time. Poking all the cats requires you to not only find them but also lure them out of their hiding places so it's more of a puzzle game than a platformer. It's also similar to Cat Planet in that it times you to see how fast you can complete it if you're interested in that sort of thing, I just like playing it for fun though so I haven't kept much track of my times, I think it probably averages in around 5 minutes when I play unless I forget some item and need to backtrack and go get it, but a smooth run from start to finish can easily be done in under 5 minutes.
Façade (PC)
More of a social interaction simulator where your goal is to see what can happen than an actual game but a fun time waster nonetheless. It's a free download just like Cat Planet and Cat Poke but it's noticably larger as it's a 3D game with a lot of voice acting. Basically you get invited to visit some old friends and talk to them about their relationship in real time using your keyboard. I find it's hard to type fast enough and a lot of the time I end up missing to respond and the situation changes and moves on in perhaps not the direction I had in mind. I've gotten a few different endings so far but only one was anything interesting, the rest were just abrupt because I apperently said the wrong thing and got kicked out of their apartment.
Starsky & Hutch (Game Boy Advance)
A 3D open world driving game on GBA? Yup, and a damn good one at that! Regardless of what some less serious self-proclaimed game critics would like you to believe it's an excellent little game for the GBA, you have your story mode, free roam and other additional mission modes, lots of cars to drive and a nice big city to drive around in. It's rather slim to begin with but you unlock more as you play through the story. I like the visuals, they remind me a lot of GTA Chinatown Wars on DS. You can also shoot your gun out the window of the car so there's some action in there as well alongside the driving.
V-Rally 3 (Game Boy Advance)
Another 3D driving game on GBA, of the rally racing type this time. I was never a big fan of the V-Rally series back on PSX but this one really steps it up, it's closer to the Colin McRae and WRC games and much better for it. The controls are nice, the visuals go by smoothly and look very nice for GBA, I'd even go as far as to say they rival some PSX games, at least somewhat, the car itself is a 2D sprite with some rotation frames but the rest of the environment is all 3D and very varied and detailed, they did a good job not making the backgrounds repetitive which can often be the case. They have some basic damage info in the main career mode but beside that it's very much an arcade game, somewhat similar to Sega Rally. I find it interesting that they included a driver view from inside the car, it actually looks and handles very well from that angle, better than a lot of other games do.
Tomb Raider Legend (PlayStation Portable)
I'm not a huge fan of the Crystal Dynamics developed Tomb Raider games, I much prefer the Core Design developed games, but every now and then I play some Legend and/or Underworld. This time I felt like picking up where I left off in my current playthrough of the PSP port of Legend. It's not the best version of the game but it is the only portable version and it does offer some unique bonus content, so I still think it's a worthy addition to any PSP collection. It's still fully playable and enjoyable, they managed to fit just about everything in there with only minor visual drawbacks and some tweaked controls, it might take a minute or two to get used to at first but soon enough you'll feel right at home.
ICO & Shadow of the Colossus Classics HD (PlayStation 3)
Not much to say, it's ICO and SotC, what can be said about these games has already been said enough. ICO is virtually the same as it was on PS2 only adapted for HDTVs, SotC on the other hand has gotten a slight upgrade with better framerate overall than it had on PS2.
UPDATE #1:
Tomb Raider - The Prophecy (Game Boy Advance)
An original old school entry in the Tomb Raider series and a good one at that. It's a bit repetitive in the gameplay but at least it's approachable and the 4-letter password system makes it easy to get where you were last without having to worry about managing saved games and losing them due to the internal cartridge battery dying some day in the future.
Star X (Game Boy Advance)
Think Super Nintendo StarWing (StarFox in US) on Game Boy Advance and this is as close as it gets. Nintendo never made a StarWing for GBA so this third party developed game stepped up and filled the void. I have to say they did an excellend job as this game not only lives up to the task but even outperforms the original StarWing on Super Nintendo completely without any additional enhancement chips, it runs on just raw GBA power! It's not a direct copy of StarWing but the gameplay is nearly identical on-rail shooting with a flat shaded polygonal spaceship.
LEGO Drome Racers (Game Boy Advance)
Anyone like me who loves flat shaded polygons and racing games like Virtua Racing owe it to themselves to play this game at least once. It's a flat shaded polygonal 3D racer with offensive/defensive weapon pickups and speed boosts. While the tracks are fully 3D the cars are 2D sprites, but the game runs smoothly and at high speeds with lots of action so it's all good. There's also a version available for PS2, GameCube and Xbox but I sadly haven't gotten hold of it or even played it. Maybe, hopefully, one day I will.
B-Movie (PSX)
A fun little game where you pilot different customizable aircraft and take on an invading alien armada attack Earth while helping your fellow humans survive. It draws clear inspiration from games like Defender and old sci-fi movies.
Star Ixiom (PSX)
Kind of like a space RPG adventure. The main part of the game is similar to games like Colony Wars Red Sun but you also get to dock at space stations and walk around, talk to other characters to advance the story and change or customize your ship.
Sonic Adventure 2 - Battle (GameCube)
It's sadly not as good as the Dreamcast original but it does unlock some multiplayer bonus characters by default. It's visually muddier, both in screen clearness and texture definition, and certain effects such as character shadows have been drastically reworked and simplified. It also doesn't feel as controllable with lots of hit detection problems and different behaviour I'm not used to in the Dreamcast original, and sadly none of this is for the better. Regardless of the shortcomings it's nice to play the Rouge and Knuckles levels again, I love Sonic Adventure 2's huge treasure hunting levels, they were on a level of their own back in the day and even these days only a small handful games have been able to do something similar successfully.
Shadow The Hedgehog (GameCube and Xbox)
A game I've played a lot on PS2 over the years. It's nice to finally get to enjoy the superior versions with better framerates, faster loading times and more colors on screen. Beside those upgrades it's still the same game I know and love, with big multi-choice levels and paths to take throughout the game and good multiplayer options made even better with the addition of native 4-player split screen, not sure if the PS2 version could do that even with a multi-tap, by default it could only do 2-player split-screen. Still, the PS2 version is good enough and being cheaper and easier to find and get hold of in general still makes it a worthy purchase for anyone interested.
They both hold up rather well, they're not perfect games but arguably two of the better FPSs of the 32-bit generation.
The Adventures of Mighty Max (Mega Drive)
A platformer based on the toyline with little playsets in the shape of monsters and stuff, a favorite toyline from my childhood to say the least, sadly I never got to play the game or watch the animated series as a kid but after having spent some time with the game and seen some clips of the show on youtube it appears I didn't miss anything important, the toys were easily the strong part of the franchise as the game is rather mediocre and not particularly well designed with questionable levels and controls and the cartoon looks rather cheap as well. Not an awful game but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone but the most old school fans of the toys like myself, I enjoy it to a bit but it got old really fast with repetitive gameplay and levels with so little variation at first I thought I had done something wrong and started the same level over again, but nope, it's the next level alright, they just didn't change a whole lot is all.
Cat Planet (PC)
A free downloadable 2D platformer type of game where you must manuever a girl with angel wings around a planet called Cat Planet inhabited by little cat planet cats that you need to find, 67 of them in tital. It's kind of a speedrunning game where you replay it often to get a better time with as few deaths as possible, you have unlimited lives. I've been able to average a time of about 5 minutes with 2-3 deaths which is an okay score I think, not world record material but I play it more for fun than serious business and my computer isn't strong so the game has a lot of slowdown despite being a rather simplistic 2D game with very barebone visuals, it's all about the programming I guess.
Cat Poke (PC)
In similar fasion to Cat Planet this is a little free downloadable game where you play as a little girl who can't go out and play because it's raining outside, so she decised to poke all the cats the in the house to pass the time. Poking all the cats requires you to not only find them but also lure them out of their hiding places so it's more of a puzzle game than a platformer. It's also similar to Cat Planet in that it times you to see how fast you can complete it if you're interested in that sort of thing, I just like playing it for fun though so I haven't kept much track of my times, I think it probably averages in around 5 minutes when I play unless I forget some item and need to backtrack and go get it, but a smooth run from start to finish can easily be done in under 5 minutes.
Façade (PC)
More of a social interaction simulator where your goal is to see what can happen than an actual game but a fun time waster nonetheless. It's a free download just like Cat Planet and Cat Poke but it's noticably larger as it's a 3D game with a lot of voice acting. Basically you get invited to visit some old friends and talk to them about their relationship in real time using your keyboard. I find it's hard to type fast enough and a lot of the time I end up missing to respond and the situation changes and moves on in perhaps not the direction I had in mind. I've gotten a few different endings so far but only one was anything interesting, the rest were just abrupt because I apperently said the wrong thing and got kicked out of their apartment.
Starsky & Hutch (Game Boy Advance)
A 3D open world driving game on GBA? Yup, and a damn good one at that! Regardless of what some less serious self-proclaimed game critics would like you to believe it's an excellent little game for the GBA, you have your story mode, free roam and other additional mission modes, lots of cars to drive and a nice big city to drive around in. It's rather slim to begin with but you unlock more as you play through the story. I like the visuals, they remind me a lot of GTA Chinatown Wars on DS. You can also shoot your gun out the window of the car so there's some action in there as well alongside the driving.
V-Rally 3 (Game Boy Advance)
Another 3D driving game on GBA, of the rally racing type this time. I was never a big fan of the V-Rally series back on PSX but this one really steps it up, it's closer to the Colin McRae and WRC games and much better for it. The controls are nice, the visuals go by smoothly and look very nice for GBA, I'd even go as far as to say they rival some PSX games, at least somewhat, the car itself is a 2D sprite with some rotation frames but the rest of the environment is all 3D and very varied and detailed, they did a good job not making the backgrounds repetitive which can often be the case. They have some basic damage info in the main career mode but beside that it's very much an arcade game, somewhat similar to Sega Rally. I find it interesting that they included a driver view from inside the car, it actually looks and handles very well from that angle, better than a lot of other games do.
Tomb Raider Legend (PlayStation Portable)
I'm not a huge fan of the Crystal Dynamics developed Tomb Raider games, I much prefer the Core Design developed games, but every now and then I play some Legend and/or Underworld. This time I felt like picking up where I left off in my current playthrough of the PSP port of Legend. It's not the best version of the game but it is the only portable version and it does offer some unique bonus content, so I still think it's a worthy addition to any PSP collection. It's still fully playable and enjoyable, they managed to fit just about everything in there with only minor visual drawbacks and some tweaked controls, it might take a minute or two to get used to at first but soon enough you'll feel right at home.
ICO & Shadow of the Colossus Classics HD (PlayStation 3)
Not much to say, it's ICO and SotC, what can be said about these games has already been said enough. ICO is virtually the same as it was on PS2 only adapted for HDTVs, SotC on the other hand has gotten a slight upgrade with better framerate overall than it had on PS2.
UPDATE #1:
Tomb Raider - The Prophecy (Game Boy Advance)
An original old school entry in the Tomb Raider series and a good one at that. It's a bit repetitive in the gameplay but at least it's approachable and the 4-letter password system makes it easy to get where you were last without having to worry about managing saved games and losing them due to the internal cartridge battery dying some day in the future.
Star X (Game Boy Advance)
Think Super Nintendo StarWing (StarFox in US) on Game Boy Advance and this is as close as it gets. Nintendo never made a StarWing for GBA so this third party developed game stepped up and filled the void. I have to say they did an excellend job as this game not only lives up to the task but even outperforms the original StarWing on Super Nintendo completely without any additional enhancement chips, it runs on just raw GBA power! It's not a direct copy of StarWing but the gameplay is nearly identical on-rail shooting with a flat shaded polygonal spaceship.
LEGO Drome Racers (Game Boy Advance)
Anyone like me who loves flat shaded polygons and racing games like Virtua Racing owe it to themselves to play this game at least once. It's a flat shaded polygonal 3D racer with offensive/defensive weapon pickups and speed boosts. While the tracks are fully 3D the cars are 2D sprites, but the game runs smoothly and at high speeds with lots of action so it's all good. There's also a version available for PS2, GameCube and Xbox but I sadly haven't gotten hold of it or even played it. Maybe, hopefully, one day I will.
B-Movie (PSX)
A fun little game where you pilot different customizable aircraft and take on an invading alien armada attack Earth while helping your fellow humans survive. It draws clear inspiration from games like Defender and old sci-fi movies.
Star Ixiom (PSX)
Kind of like a space RPG adventure. The main part of the game is similar to games like Colony Wars Red Sun but you also get to dock at space stations and walk around, talk to other characters to advance the story and change or customize your ship.
Sonic Adventure 2 - Battle (GameCube)
It's sadly not as good as the Dreamcast original but it does unlock some multiplayer bonus characters by default. It's visually muddier, both in screen clearness and texture definition, and certain effects such as character shadows have been drastically reworked and simplified. It also doesn't feel as controllable with lots of hit detection problems and different behaviour I'm not used to in the Dreamcast original, and sadly none of this is for the better. Regardless of the shortcomings it's nice to play the Rouge and Knuckles levels again, I love Sonic Adventure 2's huge treasure hunting levels, they were on a level of their own back in the day and even these days only a small handful games have been able to do something similar successfully.
Shadow The Hedgehog (GameCube and Xbox)
A game I've played a lot on PS2 over the years. It's nice to finally get to enjoy the superior versions with better framerates, faster loading times and more colors on screen. Beside those upgrades it's still the same game I know and love, with big multi-choice levels and paths to take throughout the game and good multiplayer options made even better with the addition of native 4-player split screen, not sure if the PS2 version could do that even with a multi-tap, by default it could only do 2-player split-screen. Still, the PS2 version is good enough and being cheaper and easier to find and get hold of in general still makes it a worthy purchase for anyone interested.
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.
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.
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