Now Playing - Maj 2017

Staring off this month with some rally games while waiting for the games I ordered near the end of April to arrive, also the daily dose of Smart As....



Smart As... (PlayStation Vita)

The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64)

Sega Rally Championship (PC)
It has speed issues on newer PCs so thankfully I found a patch with a frame capture program that hijacks the framerate and forces it to play at the correct speed, or at least as close to it at possible, and it works great for both the original version and the Direct3D enhanced version.
It's great fun and with the Lancia Stratos car and Lake Side track unlocked there's even more content to have fun with.
Three cars and four tracks is still less than what for example Virtua Racing Deluxe on 32X has, but it's a step up from the initial two cars and three tracks you begin with.
What's important in a rally game however is how it plays, and for one of the earliest 3D rally games ever made it plays great, the handling is intuitive and responsive and powersliding around corners feels very right. It has the benefit of being an arcade rally game rather than a purebred rally sim, so the gameplay has barely aged at all and it's still a treat to play as a direct result of this.
The early pixelated 3D visuals are charming, to the point where I actually find myself playing the original version more than the Direct3D enhanced version.

Colin McRae Rally (PlayStation)
Still a great game, if a bit dated by modern standards for rally sim games. It's got a nice selection of cars and lots of tracks to drive on, it handles very well with intuitive controls and has good driving physics for the time.
It has real-time dynamic damage modeling and a nice dynamic shadow similar to the shadows in Gran Turismo 3, Concept 2002 Tokyo-Geneva and 4 on PlayStation 2, making it look very nice at times.

Summer Challenge (Mega Drive)
The summer equivalent to Winter Challenge, with the same flat-shaded 3D graphics and similar events to play.
A rather typical button mashing and timing based gameplay type of sports game. One of the few types of sports games I kind of like, as long as they're not too awful. I like both Winter and Summer Challenge, the flat-shaded 3D polygonal visuals set them apart from all the rest and tugs very hard at my heartstrings, I love it.

Zero Tolerance (Mega Drive)
A 3D first person shooter in similar vain to Wolfenstein 3D and Doom but with a more open gameplay style where you can travel back to the previous levels to pick up health or ammo if there's any left to be found. It's got some really cool effects like blood splatters on the walls and drips down if you take out an enemy close enough, very nice. It's incredibly tough though, a very hard game. You select from a team of playable characters and when one dies you pick another until there are no more left.

Kawasaki Superbikes (Mega Drive)

Truck Racing (PlayStation)
A basic little budget truck racing game from Midas, it's lacking in content with only one truck model with a few different texture swaps and is singleplayer only, but it's got some really nice visuals overall, with high detail textures and a good amount of stuff on screen with a fair bit of draw distance all running at a high framerate, it also controls very well and is very fast, it's an arcade racer more than a sim racer, that's for sure. For a low budget game of that generation I think it does a good job.

Eagle One Harrier Attack (PlayStation)
An overlooked and underrated flight sim action game similar to the Ace Combat series, especially Ace Combat 3 Electrosphere, but you have a VTOL Harrier jump jet that can hover and strafe in mid air making it way more tactical and versatile than anything you got to pilot in Ace Combat 3.
I think there are other places to fly as well but i haven't gotten far into it yet to know for sure.

Street Racer (PlayStation)
A super-multiplatform kart racer released on Game Boy, Mega Drive, Super Nintendo, Saturn and Playstation.
It's nothing spectacular, just a solid kart racer from the mid 90s, but it's by Vivid Image, the same developer that would later make my all-time favorite kart racer S.C.A.R.S., so it's interesting to see some of their earlier attempts at the genre. I've played all the other versions except the Saturn one, which is similar to the PlayStation game but with less 3D geometry and more sprite-based stuff in the background instead, many consider the Saturn version to be the best of them all because of how much road-side stuff it has but I think the PlayStation version is good too and feels like the most next-gen version of them all, being the only one with proper 3D levels, even if they're a bit empty and barren compared to the Saturn version. Good game though and it has some cool stuff in it, even if it's a bit simplistic.

MTV Sports Pure Ride (PlayStation, playing on PlayStation 3)
Not the huge step up from the predecessor MTV Sports Snowboarding I was hoping for, but the snow texture is without a doubt the best I've seen from this generation and easily rivals and even beats most next-gen snowboard games.
It's mostly on par with the previous game in all other aspects, which is fine as that was a great game and remains my all-time favorite snowboard game, but it feels a bit too similar overall. If you have one, you don't need the other, they're both great and I'm glad to have them though.
Sadly the disc was damaged and didn't play properly on anything other than my PS3, which isn't the same thing as it emulates it and lacks the enhancements a PS2 offers when playing PSX games.

V-Rally (PlayStation, playing on PlayStation 3)
This one usually gets a bad rep for having strange controls, but honestly once you configure them to have the correct amount of over- or understeer and suspension setup it becomes just as playable and enjoyable as any other racing game. The driving physics are a little unique but it only takes a moment to get used to.
It's great looking for the time it was released and looks good still, and the physics engine is actually quite impressive, making for some spectacular crashes you'd never be able to see in Sega Rally or Colin McRae Rally, that's for sure.
It has a nice selection of cars that all have a unique feel and need to be adjusted with their own setup for all the different types of tracks to perform optimally, the tracks themselves are plenty and varied and there's a split-screen 2-player mode.
It was a popular game back in the day and a classic for us who remember it, sadly it's become very underrated as time's gone by, with most modern gamers not giving it a proper chance due to how it initially plays and handles, before you tweak the car settings, judging it by a quick test run and deeming it bad because they couldn't instantly control the car like a seasoned pro thinking it's automatically set up for them in advance, the spoiled little shits, but they're the ones who miss out on a great classic at the end of the day, so the joke's on them.
Sadly this disc was also damaged and didn't play properly on anything other than my PS3, just like MTV Pure Ride.

Crazy Taxi (PlayStation 2)
A flawless port of the Dreamcast version and I have no negatives to report, it's exactly how I remember it and since my Dreamcast is broken it's great to be able to play this on PS2.

Blast Radius (PlayStation)
A spaceship action sim game by the legendary Psygnosis, and it shows, sporting some of the best looking visuals on the system, as is usually the case with Psygnosis games, and it plays great with a high level of challenge, again nothing usual for their games. It's similar to most other great space games, like the Colony Wars series, Stellar Assault, G-Police, Star Trek Invasion and StarLancer.
You pick a ship, play through missions and upgrade the ship with upgrades you can buy with the credits you earn during the missions.
It looks great and runs silky smooth with really great controls making it easy to do enjoy dog fighting other spaceships in zero gravity, it's a treat to play and seems to be somewhat of a forgotten classic nowadays.

Vagrant Story (PlayStation)
A complex dungeon crawling semi-action RPG. Very unique, great looking and with good cinematography. The gameplay and battle system is a unique mix of real-time movement and RPG menus, kind of like a mix between Grandia, Granstream Saga, Koudelka and Parasite Eve, it's hard to explain without going into extreme detail, and I haven't played it enough yet to understand it all myself anyway, so even if I wanted to I couldn't, but you play as one character only and you fight enemies directly around you like an action game, there are no random battle encounters and enemies can be avoided entirely. There's a risk system where the higher the risk meter goes the more dangerous the game gets, as your character gets weaker, misses attacks more often and enemies can land critical hits on you a lot easier, so there's a lot to keep in mind and balance at the same time in this game. It's definitely not a game you jump into with ease, the learning curve is aimed at the most committed harcore gamers and everyone else is just gonna have to deal with it.

Crashed! (PlayStation 2)
A rather underwhelming Destruction Derby clone, sans racing. It controls fine and looks okay, it's a bit choppy due to bad 50hz conversion, but other than that it runs smooth enough.
You start with just two cars and a handful of arenas to play in, but I guess you can unlock more if you play more, there's so little to do to begin with and that sure as fuck isn't making me wanna play more, it's boring, I wanna have fun straight out of the box with a game like this, and this one is unusually locked down for the time it was released, other games had WAY more to offer, both initially and in total from what I've been able to make out from the back of the box and the manual.
The complete lack of any type of racing makes it even worse as I love Destruction Derby style racing.
It boasts about the most realistic damage physics engine ever on the back of the box, and while I think the deformation of the cars after crashing look pretty good there were still plenty of other games at that point, 2004, that were a lot more advanced and look a lot better in those regards, so I call bullshit on that claim.

Motorsiege Warriors of Primetime (PlayStation 2)
A vehicle combat game stating a bold "best vehicle combat game on PS2 yet" on the back of the box. I was of course hesitant to trust such boastful words, even if it is a 2003 game, especially when they were coming from a so called "leading games journalist" named Andy Roberts, who I could find nothing about when I searched for his name online.
The game also doesn't have any sex appeal despite having some other types of over-the-top designed characters, they even have vampires, but no sexy babes, the only female character in the game at all is and old granny, so it relies entirely on being a good game to play, an either very confident and well backed up decision or a very foolish one.
Thankfully I can report it plays great and is a lot of fun. The claim about being the best vehicle combat game on PS2 at the time may very well be true as at the time the only competitor I can recall is Twisted Metal Black really, which sucked ass here in Europe due to extreme censorship and total butchering of the game following the 2001 September 11th World Trade Center thing with the airplanes.
Anyway, you pick from an array of hovercars to use, there are several different play styles, ranging from classics such as deathmatch to team based events, and lots of different levels to pick from, and the weapons and other other pickups are scattered all over the levels and regenerate as you play.
It runs fast and smooth and looks good with a nice amount of detail and special effects with no popup and the levels you play in are huge in size.
There needs to be quite a lot of action on screen before the framerate gets a bit choppy, but it never gets too bad even at worst.
Sadly I've discovered some issues with the game that annoy me quite a bit, mainly the fact that the AI is completely retarded, like in team play your teammates will attack you at random when no enemies are around, and in general they seem to be confused about if you're on their team or not, more often than not strafing around you without shooting as if you look at you in a "Gee, I wonder if this guy is on our side or not?" kind of way, all while the actual enemies are also there attacking both you and the teammate idiots circling around you. There have also been some errors in the scoring after a game is won/lost with points going into the multi-billion negatives, keep in mind the game scores 100 points for a kill or a goal (there is a mode called Siege, similar to deathmatch/team deathmatch but with a ball you pick up and take to a goal that moves around after each score for added points) and you don't get negative points for killing yourself. or your teammates.
Regardless of the issues I think the good stuff is good enough to make up for it.
I've actually been interested in this game for ages but I never thought it seemed interesting enough in stores and there was little to no information about it online, so I sadly never bothered to buy a copy until now, and even now it was still a gamble as I still didn't know much about it.
Now that I finally have it, I'm glad I do.

Speed Kings (PlayStation 2)
A motorcycle racing game with stunt tricks and fighting, very similar to games like Road Rash and Mashed, it's smooth and fast with some minor stutter in the framerate when things get hectic crashing into traffic and other riders and such, looks nice and plays very well, if a bit wobbly at times.

Hot Wheels World Race (PlayStation 2)
A very nice futuristic combat racer similar to games like Extreme G, RollCage, Speed Racer and of course WipEout. Looks great, runs silky smooth, has great track design and the cars are based on some of the Hot Wheels toys at the time and I think the game ties in with an animated series but I haven't seen it so I can't verify that.

Crazy Frog Racer 2 (PlayStation 2)
Another futuristic racing game with weapon pickups, this one features the internet meme turned music video turned short-lived franchise and has a cast of characters, some new made for the games and some from the music videos, like "the annoying thing" crazy frog and the big red robot drone that chases the annoying thing.
It plays fairly well, it's fast and colorful and has a few different modes to play, along with a couple of minigames and the music videos for variation.
It's weird, the first music video is censored, the annoying thing's dick is visible in the original version but has a big blur over it now, but in the second video it's fully visible with no censorship at all, you can clearly see his dick.
I took a look online at what kind of scores this game had gotten and most gave it 2/10, I can honestly say it's far better than that, it is by no means a second worse possible type of game, I'd say it's even pretty good, especially considering what it originates from and the low expectations I had for it.
One of the other modes aside racing is a chase mode where you get chased by drones, like in the original music video, and see how far you can get, you take damage if you fall off the course or if the drones hit you with their weapons and traps.
The two minigames available is a dance game and a pinball game, th4e dancing game is very typical, just press the buttons at the right time to the rhythm of the song, I suck at it as always with rhythm games but I managed to beat the easy mode with a perfect score so I think for once a rhythm game has an easy mode that actually wasn't impossibly hard, so kudos for realizing not everyone is born with a natural sense of rhythm, I appreciate that. The pinball game is not your typical pinball though as there are no flippers, instead when the ball comes to a stop you have a few times that you can get it rolling again while an arrow rotates around it, time it right and you'll go where you want, the goal is to take out all the robot drones scattered around the pinball stage and there are walls and obstacles that slow you down as well as bumpers that make you go faster, I don't like pinball games in general but this was okay, not bad at all.

Carmen Sandiego The Secret of the Stolen Drums (PlayStation 2)
A rather mediocre action platformer where you play as Cole, a rookie ACME agent trying to hunt down and capture Carmen, turns out all the other agents have been fooled into looking for her in Siberia while Cole is right on her track on the other side of the world, and that's where the game begins, you sneak around, avoiding Carmen's robots and follow her tracks trying to catch her. I haven't gotten very far yet but the biggest problem are the controls, especially the camera, it also doesn't look very impressive, very bland and uninspired, the overall quality is similar to an old PlayStation game. The next place you visit is at least a bit better looking. This is the first Carmen Sandiego game I've ever played so I'm going into this with little to no bias about how it should be compared to the older games, just thought I'd mention that.

Star Trek Invasion (PlayStation)
A great spaceship action sim game and arguably the best Star Trek game ever made. It's like Blast Radius and the rest I mentioned earlier, only with a Star Trek license, with the voices of Picard and Worf and everything else you'd expect really. Apparently it's made by the same team that made the Colony Wars games and it uses the same game engine that Colony Wars Red Sun uses, so it's no wonder it looks and plays as great as it does.

Alone In The Dark Inferno (PlayStation 3)
Finally trying out the PS3 version of this game, it's said to be the best version because it was released later and had multiple things worked on a bit longer to make them less glitchy and stuff. I originally played through it on PS2 back in the day when it was new and more recently on Xbox 360, and while it's a flawed game for sure but it never got unplayable on either of those consoles in my opinion, so this should be good.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV Turtles In Time (Super Nintendo)
A port of the arcade game with some minor stuff added and some minor stuff removed, overall a good port.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Hyperstone Heist (Mega Drive)
Basically an alternative remixed version of Turtles In Time but with an arguably better story, faster and more responsive gameplay with better controls, with some additional exclusive content added and the time travel stuff, sprite scaling effects and mode-7 effects and levels removed.
This is my favorite version of the game as it adds stuff I like and removed stuff I didn't like as much.

Crash Bandicoot The Wrath of Cortex (Xbox, playing on Xbox 360)
The original PlayStation 2 version is better than this, it has better lighting, better special effects, runs smoother and has better controls, the rest of the problems, I mean game, is still present however, with all the gameplay issues, level design issues, character design issues, enemy design issues, boss battle design issues, control issues, story issues and so on, it's all in here, made even worse by how it's a downgraded port of the PS2 game.

inFAMOUS (PlayStation 3)
It's literally a clunky Sly Cooper game with humans and ugly "realistic" visuals set in a bigger and slightly more expansive city environment, that's all that needs to be said really. The electric powers are okay but not utilized anywhere near as good as they should've been and work more like generic superpowers in general than specifically electrical powers. It's also glitchy as fuck in more ways than one. It can be fun to play but when the problems gang up on you it just sucks all the fun out of it and it becomes a frustrating experience instead.

V-Rally (PlayStation)
I ordered another copy of the regular Platinum version to play as the previous one I got didn't work properly, so it's all good now, this one works just fine and plays without issues. The reason I got the Platinum version again is because the original release of V-Rally didn't support Dual Shock and Dual Analog features and there's a new car added exclusively to the Platinum version.

V-Rally 2 (PlayStation)
It's less like the original V-Rally and more like many next gen rally games on PS2 and Xbox like the several Colin McRae Rally sequels, the WRC series and RalliSport Challenge 1 and 2, but that's not a bad thing as those games are some of the best rally games out there.

WRC Arcade (PlayStation)
Similar to V-Rally 2 it has more in common with next gen rally games like the rest of the WRC series than older ones like V-Rally or Sega Rally, despite being subtitled "Arcade" it's definitely a lot closer to being a regular rally sim. It's a bit hard to control compared to the other rally games I've been playing lately, with notably less grip in the cars' handling, making it near impossible not to slide into the walls in almost every single corner.

Formula One Arcade (PlayStation)
Essentially an F1 game with pickups like a kart racer, it's a little choppy in the framerate but that's the only real complaint.

Time Crisis Project Titan (PlayStation)
I don't have a lightgun and the controls weren't that great with a normal or Dual Shock controller when I tested it so I probably won't play this game much.

Kill.Switch (PlayStation 2)
The game that spawned the subgenre of third person shooters focused on cover-based gameplay that games like Gears of War then made popular several years later. It really feels like a modern third person shooter because of this, it's hard to imagine it came out in 2003 already. Namco did a great job with the gameplay mechanics.

Kill.Switch (Game Boy Advance)
Overall a very good port considering it's on such insanely weak hardware compared to the normal console version, it's in full textured 3D, it's a third person cover-based shooter and it runs well, the controls are a bit unconventional but they work well enough to get the job done.

Sega Rally Championship (Saturn)
It's actually better than the PC port in several ways, mostly minor graphical stuff but also sound effects and music.

Gaming Purchases - April 2017

April 8th:

Went to the local GameStop and got a couple of more Vita games alongside some other gems and a bunch of cheap PS3 games I'm going to use the cases to replace broken ones I have, also a DS game to use the case for one of my GBA cartridges that lacks the original box, haven't decided which one yet.

DS:
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (no manual)

PlayStation Vita:
One Piece: Unlimited World Red (new, factory sealed)
The Muppets Movie Adventure (new, factory sealed)

PlayStation 3:
Alone in the Dark: Inferno
FIFA 12
FIFA 12
FIFA 12
NFL 11 (no manual)
NFL 11 (no manual)

Xbox 360:
NeverDead
The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena + Escape from Butcher Bay Remastered


Also got some Orbeez from BR Toys.



April 27th:

I ordered some games online but they won't be arriving until May so I'll write about them when they arrive.

Now Playing - April 2017

Continuing with Sly Cooper Thieves in Time on Vita and PS3 while also testing some other new games.



Sly Cooper Thieves in Time (PlayStation Vita)
Nearing the end now, on the final episode.
UPDATE: 10th April around 23:00 I completed the Vita version.

Sly Cooper Thieves in Time (PlayStation 3)
Catching up, only slightly behind where I am on Vita.
UPDATE: 12 April I completed the PS3 version.

NeverDead (Xbox 360)
I've heard bad things about this game but I'm having fun with it so far. It can get a bit choppy when there are lots of enemies spawning and a lot of environmental destruction is going on and the physics and controls with the main character's body dismemberment can be a bit unresponsive and bouncy, but the action is great. The rest is good too, I don't have any big complains yet. At least as far as the beginning of the game goes it seems to be a bit of an underrated hidden gem.

Earth Defense Forces 2 Portable (PlayStation Portable)

Smart As... (PlayStation Vita)
Been playing this on a daily basis doing the daily challenge and some additional free play of the minigames. It's a mixed bag in just about every way. Some minigames are challenging, others are not, some are forgiving, others are not, some control as they should, others do not, some are well designed, others aren't, some of the rules are fair and make sense, others don't, some use the Vita's different features well, others don't, some are unplayable augmented reality games because they require AR cards that don't come with the game, other AG games work fine without them, and so on.. I enjoy it for the good parts but the bad parts constantly make it a lesser experience than it should be.

The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time (Nintendo 64)
Just reminding myself of all the reason why this game sucks.

Gaming Purchases - Mars 2017

Mars 14th:

Finally found what I've been looking for, kind of, it's the wrong firmware to be useful for anything but playing physical games but I'll take what I can get at this point.

PlayStation 3:
EyeCreate

PlayStation Vita:
original OLED Sony PlayStation Vita PCH-1104 3G OFW 3.63
official Sony PlayStation Vita 32GB memorycard

Lego:
Nexo Knights Ultimate Lavara

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Mars 15th:

I went back to the local GameStop where I got the Vita yesterday to buy some games for it today, I picked up all I could find that were of reasonable price and seemed interesting enough, I have to say they were all great.

PlayStation Vita:
Deception IV Blood Ties
Killzone Mercenary
Reality Fighters
Smart As...
Spy Hunter
Tearaway


I love how the Vita has a screenshot feature!

Now Playing - Mars 2017

Mars started off with watching lots of movies and not really playing a lot of games, but that all changed when I got myself a PlayStation Vita the 15th and the second half of the month has been gaming almost around the clock, mostly Sly Cooper Theieves in Time that I picked up on PS3 after having caught up on Vita. I've been playing them with parallel save files so I can compare every step in both versions, only one thing so far has stood out as different, the bow and arrow mission had you get 120 points to pass on PS3 but only 85 on Vita, making the mission on Vita much easier to compete, I actually had some trouble on PS3 and it took me several tries while on Vita I did it on the first try no problem, so it wasn't really harder on the Vita like I thought when i saw the lower number, they were just more lenient in that version it seems, which means the trophy you get for completing the challenge is also easier to get on Vita, seems a bit unbalanced but it's literally the only real different between the two versions outside of visuals I've found so far, the rest is virtually identical, at least in content, the controls are of course a little different but not enough that I'd say it makes an actual difference, it really does feel like I'm playing the same game when I switch from one to the other, the visual difference is only noticeable for a few second than you get into the game and forget all about that and play on as normal.



Elasto Mania (PC)

Super Mario Bros. 2 (Entertainment System)

Loaded (PlayStation)

ReLoaded (PlayStation)

Baja Edge of Control (PlayStation 3)

SEGA Arcade Gallery (Game Boy Advance)

Sly Cooper Thieves in Time (PlayStation Vita)
Finally get to play this on Vita now that I have finally own a Vita. Content and gameplay wise it's on par with the PS3 version I'd say, I haven't noticed any real differences in those areas, be that for better or worse.. a great game still.
Visually is another topic entirely as the Vita version has a lot of visual stuff missing, like tons of small environment details, overall polygonal detail, environment shadows and lighting effects, the cel-shaded black outline effect on characters and enemies and a whole bunch of other minor special effects like the heat wave emanating from lit torches and such, it also runs at half the framerate, 30fps tops instead of the 60fps tops on PS3. It's funny how some items, especially the small treasures you pickpocket from enemies still retain the black cel-shaded outline, I guess they just forgot to remove all of it from the game.
The Vita version also lacks many language options, the biggest suprise being the complete lack of english in the version I got hold of, I wasn't playing it in english on PS3 but I do enjoy hearing the original voices in games, especially when the original is in english, so not having the option to do so on Vita is baffling, I can understand having other languages alongside english but removing the original language, especially when the original is english, is completely beyond me, and it's an extremely poor decision to say the very least.
Thankfully it contained the same language I play on PS3 so it works fine for me, but had someone who doesn't speak any of these languages bought this copy they would've been screwed as the only international option is so mysteriously missing.
Still, it's a great game and it's a good portable version of the beefier PS3 version for sure and because of the better motion sensors in the Vita some of the motion control stuff is actually a lot easier to do on Vita than they were on PS3 using the Dual Shock 3 controller, it's both more responsive and more accurate on Vita when using the tilt controls.
I actually had real problems with one specific mission in the third episode on PS3 where you had to do a bunch of minigames to train a character, Rocky montage style, and the controls were just so bad I kept failing and it was just awful, but on Vita I did it on the first try, it was a bit tricky but the controls did what I wanted and it was actually one of the easiest missions in the game at theta point because of it, unlike on PS3 where it remains the hardest part of the game so far.

Spy Hunter (PlayStation Vita)
I used to own and have played the older first remake for Xbox and PS2 and I have the sequel on Xbox as well, they were really good I thought, especially the sequel, and this is yet another remake in similar fashion and I like this one a lot too.

Reality Fighters (PlayStation Vita)
A fighting game where you use the camera to create a fighter and fight in augmented reality, it's good, similar to what Invizimals did back on PSP but on the next technical level, very nice.

Smart As... (PlayStation Vita)
Solve problems and such, it's fun, I like game like this, it's also narrated by John Cleese which is nice.

Tearaway (PlayStation Vita) I fell instantly in love with this, so adorable, I just wanna hug it, all of it. I love Tearaway.

Killzone Mercenary (PlayStation Vita)
I'm impressed by the visuals and it plays great, a worthy game of the Killzone name and so much better than 2 and 3 were on PS3.

Deception IV Blood Ties (PlayStation Vita)
An excellent successor to the fantastically brutal Trapt on PS2, as good on Vita as it is on PS3, and vice versa!

Sly Cooper Thieves in Time (PlayStation 3)

Jurassic Park Rampage Edition (Mega Drive)
After having seen MrBaffacake's review on Youtube I had to give this one a try.

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

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.