Playing some of the stuff I was playing at the end of Juni but also some of the new games I ordered.
Doom (32X)
The Ultimate Doom (the Doom 3 Resurrection of Evil version for Xbox played on Xbox 360)
Doom 3 Resurrection of Evil (Xbox, played on Xbox 360)
Quake 2 (Quake 4 Bonus Disc version for Xbox 360)
Quake 3 Revolution (PlayStation 2)
Quake 4 (Xbox 360)
I wanted to give this game a chance but damn it sucks, the framerate is atrocious, some of the worst I've seen on Xbox 360, the visuals are low res and look worse in many cases than Doom 3 and Doom 3 Resurrection of Evil do on Xbox, the gameplay is constantly interrupted by stuff having to do with the "story" and other marines that are with you, it freezes every now and then forcing me to reboot and the enemies disappear after they die so fast that I barely ever get too see what it was I was even fighting because the darkness is even worse than Doom 3 was making it hard to see anything at the best of times! Sure, some of the guns have built in flashlights but they're small and ineffective so most of the game is just fumbling around in the pitch black darkness not knowing what to do because the objectives are vague as shit and you have no map and most doors are locked making it an extremely linear experience where you mostly just run around in circles until you find the one door that can be opened now, they all the same with no indication they've been unlocked or anything either so it's really just about trial and error until you come across the right way to go. Also the turret sections are plenty and they all fucking suck. I doubt I'll be able to endure through to the end of this game, it's just wearing on me so much every minute feels like an hour. If only there was more action it could've at least kept my interest up a bit but enemies are far too few and generic, at least this early in the game, to be interesting to fight. A custom soundtrack with good music is a must, the game does not provide that for you so you have to bring your own tunes, that's fine, I have plenty on my Xbox 360 harddrive, but after how Quake 2 did everything so perfect and right it's very hard to cope with all these downgrades that Quake 4 brings to the table. Quake 2 is still one of the best games ever made and I love it to bits, this sadly is one of the worst games ever made and a terrible sequel in every sense and I wish they would've just left it in development hell for a few more years until they at least had a game that worked on fundamental levels unlike the fucking failfest this sadly turned out to be.
Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli (PS2)
Red Zone (Mega Drive)
This game is awesome, a top-down helicopter game with some on-foot missions. It's very impressive and does some really cool things to get 3D effects and such. The biggest flaw this game has remains the insane difficulty, much like Battletoads on Entertainment System it's a technical marvel and a pleasure to behold and play but you won't be able to breeze through it anytime soon. Thankfully this game, unlike Battletoads, has a password system with some nice codes for level select and stuff so it's far more lenient in that regard.
Mega Games 6 Vol. 2 (Mega Drive)
A nice collection of games containing Alien Storm, Super Thunder Blade, Super Monaco GP, Super Hang-On, Columns and World Cup Italia.
I'm mostly playing Alien Storm and Super Thunder Blade as I already have Super Monaco GP on separate cartridge and for the rest I only really like Super Hang-On and even then not that much, haven't tried World Cup Italia yet, I don't care for sports games, especially football and ice hockey they're just the worst, and I have many versions of Columns so I don't need to bother with that at all, I know exactly what it is and have played it plenty.
Alien Storm is awesome and it was worth getting this collection cartridge for that game alone, the rest are a nice and welcome bonus though.
Super Thunder Blade is a game I have other versions of as well so nothing new, I've played it plenty, but this is the first time I've played the Mega Drive original, closest I had before this was the version in Mega Drive Collection for PS2.
Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker (Mega Drive)
I don't care much for sports games in general, and pool, snooker, billiards and the like are no exceptions, but this is a 3D polygonal game on Mega Drive and it's made by the same guy who made the excellent Mercury games on PSP, Archer Maclean.
The Story of Thor (Mega Drive)
Beyond Oasis is a better name for it but the content remains the same. I recently played through this but now I have my very own copy and that's awesome! Didn't come cheap though, it remains one of the most expensive games on Mega Drive you can buy. I got it at a somewhat reasonable price compared to what I've seen on ebay and such places.
Top Gear Rally (Game Boy Advance)
Another good rally game for GBA alongside the excellent V-Rally 3. The graphics in this are similar to the original Need For Speed and 32-bit versions of Road Rash with scrolling 2D backgrounds at angles that make them appear as if they are 3D with textures, very nice looking. It plays well but the difficulty is up there, it's one of the harder rally games I've played. Between this, V-Rally 3 and Colin McRae Rally 2.0 and some other okay ones like GT Advance 2 Rally Racing it really makes me wonder why Sega Rally Championship turned out so bad, GBA can absolutely do good rally games and the older Sega Rally games were great so how they fucked up the GBA game so royally is beyond me at this point. Thankfully I don't ever have to play it again, I have several better racing and rally games for GBA to enjoy now so fuck you Sega Rally Championship on GBA, you suck and it was an absolute displeasure ever trying to play you. Hooray for good GBA rally games like Top Gear Rally!
Wing Commander Prophecy (Game Boy Advance)
A 3D space action flight-sim with good visuals and all. Another good game that helps prove that the GBA had a lot more to offer than just ports of old Super Nintendo games.
MTV Sports Snowboarding (PlayStation)
One of the very select few sports games I enjoy. It holds up very well. I always felt there were two good snowboarding games of that generation, this and Coolboarders 2, and of the two this is the better one by far, Coolboarders 2 is a bit more playful fun and has a nostalgic value to me more than anything, while this is an objectively superior and much more solid game.
Fade To Black (PlayStation)
This is the sequel to the classic platformer Flashback. It's not a perfect game but it's enjoyable and interesting. I succeeds with making me want to play on to see what happens next.
Stranglehold (Xbox 360)
A great third person shooter action game I go back to every now and then for a guaranteed good time. Also a good game to relieve some aggression in. It still looks fantastic, they really did a fantastic job on the technical side, it's a visual treat that set a high standard for other games to follow, maybe a little too high as not many has lived up to the same level, it's a very impressive game and with good gameplay to back up the technical and visual quality. I recommend this to all action fans out there, especially John Woo film fans and anyone who liked his movie Hard Boiled as this game is the official sequel to that movie.
Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation)
Disc 1, at Gold Saucer, got Yuffie.
Probotector (Game Boy)
Hard but awesome classic.
Super Mario Land (Game Boy)
Always fun to play through.
Bomb Jack (Game Boy)
A fun time waster.
Impact Racing (PlayStation)
Why is there no behind the car views in my game? When I look on youtube literally every video I see has at least two behind the car views to pick from beside the default bumper cam, one video had a guy even mention that you change views with the square button, but in my game there's no mention of being able to switch views in the manual for square, it just says square is the brake, which isn't correct either as square has no effect in game and braking is done by pressing down on the steering cross!
The screenshots on the back of the packaging of my game are only taken from bumper cam and no button or combination of buttons work in game to switch views.
I'm beginning to think the PAL release skipped including the behind the car views entirely. If that's the case this game will not get much play from me as it isn't particularly enjoyable to play in that view at all, which is why every video on youtube understandable has the person playing switching to a better view!
It's still somewhat playable as it is but I HATE driving in bumper cam and this game clearly wasn't made to be played that way. I can tolerate bumper cam only in some games, but this clearly has a behind the car view in every example i can find but my own copy, so why can't I just get it to work!? Ahh! Infuriating!
It still has awesome music though.
FlatOut 2 (PlayStation 2)
It was as I expected from having played the upgraded versions Ultimate Carnage on Xbox 360 and Head On on PSP. Beautiful to look at with lots of detailed destruction but virtually impossible to win a single race in due to skilled opponent AI and a driving physics engine that doesn't like you very much.
The ragdoll-launching minigames are still what I enjoy the most; driving a rocket-powered car down a ramp only to launch the driver out the front window of the car into some absurd oversized game arena like bowling or basketball just never gets old.
Raceway Drag & Stock Racing (PlayStation 2)
I couldn't test much as most stuff needs to be unlocked by playing through the championship mode, but the few races I could partake in were okay, the framerate was a bit choppy when all 16 cars were on screen at once during stock car races, but as they scattered a bit over the track after a lap or two it ran smoothly for the most part until the race was over. It reminded me of early Dreamcast games visually more so than any PS2 games from 2006.
R:Racing (PlayStation 2)
It's every bit as good as it was on Xbox last time I played it. Now I'd like to get hold of the GameCube version some day too for a complete set.
Turok Evolution (PlayStation 2)
Wow was this a mixed experience. It's kinda ugly for the most part, even for a 2002 release these are horribly dated visuals, in all honesty the older N64 Turok games look better than this.
It's pretty bland in gameplay as well, at least so far. I liked the idea of the flying sections that were a bit like Panzer Dragoon but sadly they had one hit kills whenever you touched anything, including the randomly spawning invisible walls!!
It became a test of patience as the frustration of having to reload the same sections again and again as I would just randomly die in mid air while far away from any visible objects, enemies or other dangers that could've killed me, and only sometimes I'd die in the same place, mostly it changed at random, but after countless tries and three hours later trying to get through a part of the game that otherwise would've taken less than half an hour I got past it and was back doing the normal FPS stuff again. However, later segments of the game become very long and because this game has no in-game checkpoints it's back to the beginning of the entire level every time you die, which can also happen at random for no apparent reason now just like in the flying missions which were super short and took over three hours due to this bullshit!! I'm not doing that with levels that are already long as they are without having to restart them at random intervals.
Sky Odyssey (PlayStation 2)
An adventure game in flight simulation form. It's hard and requires precise flying from the start. I've managed to get past the first level but that's it.
I love that it allows you to customize your place a bit. I'd love more options to do so but a paint job and emblem editor are nice and I appreciate it even if the emblem editor is the weakest I've ever encountered in a game and nowhere near what you can do in Rage Racer, R4 Ridge Racer Type 4 or the Armored Core series.
I'm impressed by how detailed the flying physics are, they simulate airflow in a way no other game I know does.
An interesting thing to note with this game is that while it's a very early release for the PS2 it still has a 60hz option, making this the earliest and oldest PS2 game with a 60hz option that I'm aware of.
Britney's Dance Beat (PlayStation 2)
I've always wondered what this game was like. Now I know. It's a very basic rhythm game with a Britney Spears theme. Not much more to say. I am terrible at rhythm games in general and this was one of the hardest and least forgiving ones I've ever played, which is weird as you'd think a game for Britney Spears fans would be more lenient to non-gamers, beginners and people like me with no sense of rhythm, so I couldn't get anywhere in the main Audition mode and I can safely say I'll never ever be able to unlock Britney. Yeah, the Britney pat of the game feels very tucked away as anything to do with her and fanservice of her is locked away and needs to be unlocked before you can see or use it. You'd think she and the fanservice stuff like music videos etc. would be the stuff you had unlocked by default and other characters and stuff would come later seeing as this is a product for fans of her first and a dance and rhythm game second, but it feels like the opposite is true.
Road Rage 3 (PlayStation 2)
An excellent drift racing game, easily the best in that genre that I've played. Sure, there are other racing games I love even more that has similar things in it like DT Racer, but as a game focused on this type of racing it does an excellent job at what it does and is a lot of fun to play, and successfully pulling off long consecutive drifts both up and down tight and technically challenging mountain roads feels endlessly satisfying.
It runs silky smooth and looks fairly nice too, nothing overly impressive to look at but at least it has no issues with the framerate. I just wish they could've had some proper reflections on the cars.
A fun fact to note is that this game, while originally developed and published by Atlus in Japan it was published by the infamous Phoenix Games here in Europe. As far as I know that makes for the only good game they've ever published.
The Getaway Black Monday (PlayStation 2)
Well this was a disappointment. It's uglier than the original Getaway, it has a much worse framerate, it controls worse with much worse vehicle crash physics, there's lots of glitches and I even saw hug chunks of the graphics pop in and out of existence while I was standing still so you can't blame it on loading new geometry, it was just glitchy, and some parts were just not there, you could see through the ground and nothing I did changed that, going away and coming back so the game loaded the area again changed nothing, it's just poorly made it seems.
That being said it's still an okay free roaming game with a nice big chunk of London realistically recreated in virtual form and there is still some fun to be had, the first game just did it much better is all.
Starsky & Hutch (GameCube)
A good version of the game but I prefer the GBA version a lot more. If anything this makes me appreciate the GBA version even more as it manages to do almost everything this version does but on infinitely less powerful hardware and more streamlined, this takes forever to do anything and feels drawn out and convoluted by comparison. Still, it's nice to have another GameCube game as that part of my collection is crippled by default due to GameCube not having a lot of games I want, so any game that can help fill it out a bit is most welcome.
Metro 2033 (Xbox 360)
This is literally unplayable. The forced auto walking ruins it. I've already died multiple times simply because I can't stop the character from walking over edged falling to his death and I've just started playing, it's a whole project trying to line him up to press a button because he just walks past everything! It's broken by design. I don't understand how anyone can play this. By far the worst controls in any game I've ever played spanning the last 30 years. At first I thought it may just be some really obscure glitch but i found nothing online about it and it's there with all controllers I have, no settings change this, I've tried rebooting, I've tried installing the disc, I've tried deleting all the game data and nothing i do changes it so as bad as it is I guess they wanted it that way. It's unbelievably bad yet I've read or heard nothing about this as a complaint anywhere? I don't get it. How does anyone cope with this?
He just auto walked through a wall so I skipped a whole part of the level and ended up in some completely other scene I haven't seen before. This is the glitchiest game I've played in a long time.
For "fun" (as in desperation) I went to my storage and dug out one of my old original Xbox 360 controllers, I have two and they're both broken in different ways so I got the one that at least sporadically works, and plugged it in via my old half working charge & play cable and battery pack because I thought to myself this is the only thing I haven't tried yet and it's not going to work but at least it'll be more fun trying to see how little this thing works than actually trying to play this crap with a working controller.. turns out it's the only controller I own that doesn't have the auto walking problem so I've been trying to use it to play the game for a while and I can't say I wanna change my score at all, this game even with working controls is awful with constant in-game cutscenes (if they only wanted to make a horror b-movie why did they make a game in the first place?), quick time events, glitches out the fracking wazoo (now IA characters and enemies glitch through walls as well, so it wasn't just my own character earlier who can do it, it's a feature everyone can enjoy!!), lackluster weapons, dark and unevenly detailed visuals (doom 3 on original Xbox feels like it's played out outdoors on a bright sunny day compared to this), the one thing I've liked so far was a hot prostitute looking character that walked past as I was contextually forced to sit at a table and drink alcohol while listening to some dialog I cared nothing about as she disappeared as quickly as she popped up outta nowhere. I hate how there's no good display of information, everything is hidden away so you're getting little to no tactical feedback and then there are all the little things, for example like how you can't have the pointer "compass" on screen without having everything else tucked away, you can't even run with it because the character keeps flailing his arms madly if you do so you can't look at the damn thing telling you where to go to trigger the next drawn out uninteresting in-game cutscene you're forced to sit through until the next uneventful and glitchy context sensitive event happens, or how the AI is mentally retarded and just sits in corners not doing jack shit letting you kill whole rooms of enemies on your own until you've reached the next context sensitive point where the AI finally understands that it's time to do something, like open a door because our hero is too fucking incapable of doing such demanding tasks apparently.
This game has very rapidly become a strong top contender for worst game of the previous generation + all time for me.
Metro Last Light (Xbox 360)
I couldn't take anymore of 2033 so I decided to give Last Light a go in hopes that after years making a sequel they'd at least learn to program walking or realise how awful the constant interruption of gameplay with context cutscenes were or some kind of improvements or problems fixed. But no. They did not. All the same problems are here even the auto walking makes a return making it equally as unplayable as 2033. I am gobsmacked by this developer's ineptitude.
So I've been trying to try out Last Light some more to see if a single thing has been fixed or improved over 2033 at all (spoiler: nothing has been fixed or improved, in fact some things seem even worse, more incomplete and glitchier than in the first game) I stumbled across this funny little thing.
While allowing the game to auto walk, as they both love to do against my will except with my broken controller I can't use anyway, turns out even the game itself seems to realize it's not suppose to be doing that shit as the fucking idle animations started playing while he was still walking! While walking forward he starts checking his gun and counting his bullets and stuff.
It's beyond words at this point so I'm just gonna pretend I never played either of these and never had the money I bought them with and never bought them and they don't exist at all, at least then maybe I'll be able to sleep at night after this.
I am now officially done with this shit, no more Metro for me ever.
Friday, July 1, 2016
Gaming Purchases - Juli 2016
Juli 1st:
An epic order of games I placed on Hetero Pride Day the 29th of Juni to celebrate my awesome sexuality! The order arrived today.
Mega Drive:
F22 Interceptor (Already had a copy of this but I didn't have a manual to go with it, this was cheap and complete with manual so it was worth picking up for the sake of completion)
Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker (cartridge only)
Mega Games 6 Vol. 2 (cartridge only, contains World Cup Italia, Alien Storm, Super Hang-On, Super Monaco GP, Super Thunder Blade and Columns)
Red Zone (cartridge only)
Story of Thor
Game Boy Advance:
Top Gear Rally
Wing Commander Prophecy
DS:
Project Rub
The Rub Rabbits!
PlayStation:
Fade to Black
MTV Sports Snowboarding
PlayStation 2:
Fire Blade
Sky Odyssey
Britney's Dance Beat
Road Rage 3
Savage Skies
The Getaway Black Monday
Xbox:
RoadKill
Red Ninja End of Honour
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Juli 27th:
Ordered some games last week, got them today.
PlayStation:
Brahma Force
Impact Racing
PlayStation 2:
FlatOut 2
Raceway Drag & Stock Racing
R:Racing
Turok Evolution
GameCube:
Starsky & Hutch
Xbox 360:
Metro 2033
Metro Last Light Limited Edition
An epic order of games I placed on Hetero Pride Day the 29th of Juni to celebrate my awesome sexuality! The order arrived today.
Mega Drive:
F22 Interceptor (Already had a copy of this but I didn't have a manual to go with it, this was cheap and complete with manual so it was worth picking up for the sake of completion)
Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker (cartridge only)
Mega Games 6 Vol. 2 (cartridge only, contains World Cup Italia, Alien Storm, Super Hang-On, Super Monaco GP, Super Thunder Blade and Columns)
Red Zone (cartridge only)
Story of Thor
Game Boy Advance:
Top Gear Rally
Wing Commander Prophecy
DS:
Project Rub
The Rub Rabbits!
PlayStation:
Fade to Black
MTV Sports Snowboarding
PlayStation 2:
Fire Blade
Sky Odyssey
Britney's Dance Beat
Road Rage 3
Savage Skies
The Getaway Black Monday
Xbox:
RoadKill
Red Ninja End of Honour
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Juli 27th:
Ordered some games last week, got them today.
PlayStation:
Brahma Force
Impact Racing
PlayStation 2:
FlatOut 2
Raceway Drag & Stock Racing
R:Racing
Turok Evolution
GameCube:
Starsky & Hutch
Xbox 360:
Metro 2033
Metro Last Light Limited Edition
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Now Playing - Juni 2016
Mostly been playing the games I got recently, it feels great to finally own copies of my own for some of these games and the newcomers have been welcome additions to my library as well.
Doom (32X)
Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli (PS2)
A newly purchased game I'm trying out. It's fairly average overall with some highlights and some low points. It's a bit glitchy and the main menu has frozen on my multiple times when in the Options menu, forcing me to reset my PS2.
The visuals are a mixed bag, it runs at 25fps (in the PAL version I have, I'm assuming the NTSC version runs at 30) and it's a bit grainy and pixelated, not a lot of antialiasing going on, if any, maybe some but I think it's just the light bloom effect making it seem like it's smoother than it really is. On the bright side it does have some very nice details on the cars and environment, with some nice dynamic shadows and light bloom effect that makes it all look at bit less flat and boring, there are real-time reflections on the cars with a fairly high framerate on them, not buttery smooth but it's a lot better than games like Forza on Xbox where the game ran 30fps but the reflections were rendered in single digits.
One thing I noticed was that there was only ever one type of car model on the track at any given time, you always race against the same type of car you're driving, this means you can't pick a better car and win and vice versa for the opponents, they all have different paint jobs though so it's not too visually repetitive.
You have a few different camera angles to pick from, three behind the car where two are far away and one so close it's impractical, a hood cam and a bumper cam, sadly no driver cam like the game claims in the manual because that part is copied directly from the PS3 and Wii versions' manuals, simple laziness from the developers not making a dedicated manual and information for the PS2 version, also, some claim that a racing wheel that supposedly should work doesn't, but I don't have one of those so it's not something I can test or verify myself.
There's damage modeling on the cars, which is nice, and while nothing fancy, just some superficial twisted metal, it's still better than the likes of Gran Turismo or Enthusia where there was no damage at all to be found.
The driving physics are fairly good, it's an arcade-sim hybrid so it's a bit exaggerated by real life standards but still maintain a lot of the real world dynamics you would expect, it does powersliding very well, so drifting is fairly easy to do, it's not too unlike DT Racer in that regard, which is great as DT Racer is my all time favorite racing game.
There are some odd parts to this game, like they have their own Achievements/Trophy system where you win cards with Ferrari cars on them by completing set "Card Challenges" in the game's many modes, like beat your own time in Time Trial, win a race first place and other such common goals, and the information about the cars on the cards, like the year it was introduced, how fast the top speed is and the brake horse power etc., act like points in this odd card game you can play that doesn't seem to do anything whether you win or lose.
There are a few different modes to play in the game, relatively basic stuff but it's at least all there, all except multiplayer that is, it's a singleplayer game only, so if you wanted to race against your friends you're all out of luck.
You unlock cars before you get to buy them, you earn credits from racing in general, even time trial gets you a few measly points. You can also customize your cars to an extent, with custom paintjobs a-la-Need for Speed Underground with paints such as metallic, pearlescent, glossy and matte. You can also add custom vinyls and stuff, nothing too advanced but it's better than nothing, no extreme custom mods like new spoilers or body kits or anything of that sort though, but you do get to customize things like ride height and other more technical stuff i have little to no interest in, just the usual basic performance tweaking.
There are more things I could talk about like how you can set the challenge mode time so you can end up having to race 45 minutes before the race can end and other odd little things like that but I haven't explored the game enough to go into more detail at the moment.
As a final word I'll say the AI is okay, they're not glued to an invisible race line like in the Gran Turismo games, so if there's contact they don't automatically get the upper hand screwing you over by default.
Mega Drive Collection (PS2)
Sonic, Sonic 2 and Shinobi III.
The Ultimate Doom (the Doom 3 Resurrection of Evil version for Xbox played on Xbox 360)
It's easily one of the most accurate console ports of the original PC version of Doom there is, maybe even more so than the newer ones and maybe even the most so period, and while I still prefer the 32X and PlayStation versions for their changes and upgrades that fit my personal taste better, it's nice to be able to enjoy the original in it's original form now and then as well.
Doom 3 Resurrection of Evil (Xbox, played on Xbox 360)
I prefer Doom 3 on Xbox over the PC original and RoE is a great follow up that improves on the original in just about every technical way. I may not care as much for the story and setting in RoE as I do for Doom 3, but it's still good and I enjoy it. I've always felt RoE is underappreciated and when playing it now again after not having played it for years I can say I still feel the same way, it is underappreciated.
Quake 2 (Quake 4 Bonus Disc version for Xbox 360)
I love Quake 2, it's one of my all time favorites regardless of the version, sure the N64 version is the marginally weakest due to the choppiness and bad controls but it's still great, so even at it's worst Quake 2 holds up and is a joy to play. This version for Xbox 360 that comes on the initial release of Quake 4's Bonus Disc is a direct and virtually perfect port of the PC original. Sadly the newer re-release of Quake 4 on Xbox 360 lacked the Bonus Disc making it much harder to get hold of, I had to buy Quake 4 twice to get it myself as the first was the correct release but the disc was missing when I got it, after that I found a complete copy at GameStop that I bought immediately.
I may prefer the PlayStation port as my favorite of them all due to the upgrades and added content but I love the PC original and it's nice that there was finally a proper console port with no changes or downgrades.
Quake 3 Revolution (PlayStation 2)
Not as good as the Dreamcast port over all, sure it has twice as high framerate and the pickups are 3D models instead of 2D icons but the controls are much worse, the load times are extremely long and the visuals are much duller in color, and if I'm not mistaken some special effects are completely missing like shiny surfaces on some walls and stuff, and to be honest I prefer the 2D icons the Dreamcast version has as they were much easier to detect.
Still, as my Dreamcast remains dead the PS2 version is all I got, short of the PC original, but I don't wanna play on PC when I have a proper console version.
Quake 4 (Xbox 360)
I'm not a fan of this game and the Xbox 360 versions makes it hard to even endure with a really bad framerate to constantly remind you that there is no fun allowed.
I've tried Quake 4 once before when I bought it but I thought it pretty much sucked and because I only really bought it for the Bonus Disc containing Quake 2 I never bothered giving Quake 4 much of a chance at the time, so I figured I'd give it one now. It doesn't start good but I'll keep at it and see if it gets any better.
Doom (32X)
Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli (PS2)
A newly purchased game I'm trying out. It's fairly average overall with some highlights and some low points. It's a bit glitchy and the main menu has frozen on my multiple times when in the Options menu, forcing me to reset my PS2.
The visuals are a mixed bag, it runs at 25fps (in the PAL version I have, I'm assuming the NTSC version runs at 30) and it's a bit grainy and pixelated, not a lot of antialiasing going on, if any, maybe some but I think it's just the light bloom effect making it seem like it's smoother than it really is. On the bright side it does have some very nice details on the cars and environment, with some nice dynamic shadows and light bloom effect that makes it all look at bit less flat and boring, there are real-time reflections on the cars with a fairly high framerate on them, not buttery smooth but it's a lot better than games like Forza on Xbox where the game ran 30fps but the reflections were rendered in single digits.
One thing I noticed was that there was only ever one type of car model on the track at any given time, you always race against the same type of car you're driving, this means you can't pick a better car and win and vice versa for the opponents, they all have different paint jobs though so it's not too visually repetitive.
You have a few different camera angles to pick from, three behind the car where two are far away and one so close it's impractical, a hood cam and a bumper cam, sadly no driver cam like the game claims in the manual because that part is copied directly from the PS3 and Wii versions' manuals, simple laziness from the developers not making a dedicated manual and information for the PS2 version, also, some claim that a racing wheel that supposedly should work doesn't, but I don't have one of those so it's not something I can test or verify myself.
There's damage modeling on the cars, which is nice, and while nothing fancy, just some superficial twisted metal, it's still better than the likes of Gran Turismo or Enthusia where there was no damage at all to be found.
The driving physics are fairly good, it's an arcade-sim hybrid so it's a bit exaggerated by real life standards but still maintain a lot of the real world dynamics you would expect, it does powersliding very well, so drifting is fairly easy to do, it's not too unlike DT Racer in that regard, which is great as DT Racer is my all time favorite racing game.
There are some odd parts to this game, like they have their own Achievements/Trophy system where you win cards with Ferrari cars on them by completing set "Card Challenges" in the game's many modes, like beat your own time in Time Trial, win a race first place and other such common goals, and the information about the cars on the cards, like the year it was introduced, how fast the top speed is and the brake horse power etc., act like points in this odd card game you can play that doesn't seem to do anything whether you win or lose.
There are a few different modes to play in the game, relatively basic stuff but it's at least all there, all except multiplayer that is, it's a singleplayer game only, so if you wanted to race against your friends you're all out of luck.
You unlock cars before you get to buy them, you earn credits from racing in general, even time trial gets you a few measly points. You can also customize your cars to an extent, with custom paintjobs a-la-Need for Speed Underground with paints such as metallic, pearlescent, glossy and matte. You can also add custom vinyls and stuff, nothing too advanced but it's better than nothing, no extreme custom mods like new spoilers or body kits or anything of that sort though, but you do get to customize things like ride height and other more technical stuff i have little to no interest in, just the usual basic performance tweaking.
There are more things I could talk about like how you can set the challenge mode time so you can end up having to race 45 minutes before the race can end and other odd little things like that but I haven't explored the game enough to go into more detail at the moment.
As a final word I'll say the AI is okay, they're not glued to an invisible race line like in the Gran Turismo games, so if there's contact they don't automatically get the upper hand screwing you over by default.
Mega Drive Collection (PS2)
Sonic, Sonic 2 and Shinobi III.
The Ultimate Doom (the Doom 3 Resurrection of Evil version for Xbox played on Xbox 360)
It's easily one of the most accurate console ports of the original PC version of Doom there is, maybe even more so than the newer ones and maybe even the most so period, and while I still prefer the 32X and PlayStation versions for their changes and upgrades that fit my personal taste better, it's nice to be able to enjoy the original in it's original form now and then as well.
Doom 3 Resurrection of Evil (Xbox, played on Xbox 360)
I prefer Doom 3 on Xbox over the PC original and RoE is a great follow up that improves on the original in just about every technical way. I may not care as much for the story and setting in RoE as I do for Doom 3, but it's still good and I enjoy it. I've always felt RoE is underappreciated and when playing it now again after not having played it for years I can say I still feel the same way, it is underappreciated.
Quake 2 (Quake 4 Bonus Disc version for Xbox 360)
I love Quake 2, it's one of my all time favorites regardless of the version, sure the N64 version is the marginally weakest due to the choppiness and bad controls but it's still great, so even at it's worst Quake 2 holds up and is a joy to play. This version for Xbox 360 that comes on the initial release of Quake 4's Bonus Disc is a direct and virtually perfect port of the PC original. Sadly the newer re-release of Quake 4 on Xbox 360 lacked the Bonus Disc making it much harder to get hold of, I had to buy Quake 4 twice to get it myself as the first was the correct release but the disc was missing when I got it, after that I found a complete copy at GameStop that I bought immediately.
I may prefer the PlayStation port as my favorite of them all due to the upgrades and added content but I love the PC original and it's nice that there was finally a proper console port with no changes or downgrades.
Quake 3 Revolution (PlayStation 2)
Not as good as the Dreamcast port over all, sure it has twice as high framerate and the pickups are 3D models instead of 2D icons but the controls are much worse, the load times are extremely long and the visuals are much duller in color, and if I'm not mistaken some special effects are completely missing like shiny surfaces on some walls and stuff, and to be honest I prefer the 2D icons the Dreamcast version has as they were much easier to detect.
Still, as my Dreamcast remains dead the PS2 version is all I got, short of the PC original, but I don't wanna play on PC when I have a proper console version.
Quake 4 (Xbox 360)
I'm not a fan of this game and the Xbox 360 versions makes it hard to even endure with a really bad framerate to constantly remind you that there is no fun allowed.
I've tried Quake 4 once before when I bought it but I thought it pretty much sucked and because I only really bought it for the Bonus Disc containing Quake 2 I never bothered giving Quake 4 much of a chance at the time, so I figured I'd give it one now. It doesn't start good but I'll keep at it and see if it gets any better.
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Gaming Purchases - Juni 2016
Juni 7th:
My first purchase at a brand new local gaming store downtown with focus on retro gaming. An appetizer before they get more interesting stuff in stock.
PlayStation 2:
Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli (new, sealed)
Juni 13th:
Ordered a 4TB external USB 3.0 drive for my PC, it should arrive in a couple of days. (Update: a couple of days later it arrived and it works with no problems.)
Juni 13th:
Today's second hand finds.
Gaming related:
a handheld portable Sudoku LCD game
DVD:
My Little Pony Friendship is Magic - A Pony Party
Comics:
multiple Agent X9
multiple Magnum
Household stuff:
different nozzles and stuff for my sink and shower etc, nozzles you can aim and an LED shower thing that changes color while you shower, also some electrical outlet plugs to keep out dust when left unused.
Juni 23rd:
Due to recent health issues gaming has been a bit on the low activity side but today I went to the retro store again and even though they still don't have any Sega stuff in stock I picked up a couple of other things.
Wii:
Transformers Dark of the Moon Stealth Force Edition (new, sealed)
It's the collector's edition with the little Bumblebee transformer toy in the box.
DVD:
Alien Tripleup Collection (new, sealed)
It contains three sci-fi b-movies; Aliens Vs. Avatars, American Battleship and Alien Origin
My first purchase at a brand new local gaming store downtown with focus on retro gaming. An appetizer before they get more interesting stuff in stock.
PlayStation 2:
Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli (new, sealed)
Juni 13th:
Ordered a 4TB external USB 3.0 drive for my PC, it should arrive in a couple of days. (Update: a couple of days later it arrived and it works with no problems.)
Juni 13th:
Today's second hand finds.
Gaming related:
a handheld portable Sudoku LCD game
DVD:
My Little Pony Friendship is Magic - A Pony Party
Comics:
multiple Agent X9
multiple Magnum
Household stuff:
different nozzles and stuff for my sink and shower etc, nozzles you can aim and an LED shower thing that changes color while you shower, also some electrical outlet plugs to keep out dust when left unused.
Juni 23rd:
Due to recent health issues gaming has been a bit on the low activity side but today I went to the retro store again and even though they still don't have any Sega stuff in stock I picked up a couple of other things.
Wii:
Transformers Dark of the Moon Stealth Force Edition (new, sealed)
It's the collector's edition with the little Bumblebee transformer toy in the box.
DVD:
Alien Tripleup Collection (new, sealed)
It contains three sci-fi b-movies; Aliens Vs. Avatars, American Battleship and Alien Origin
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Now Playing - Maj 2016
Mostly been playing the games I got recently, it feels great to finally own copies of my own for some of these games and the newcomers have been welcome additions to my library as well.
Eternal Champions (Mega Drive)
F22 Interceptor (Mega Drive)
I'm usually not a huge fan of flight sim games but a flat-shaded polygonal 3D flight sim on the Mega Drive that plays well and is fun is easily something I can make an exception for and thoroughly enjoy.
LHX Attack Chopper (Mega Drive)
I do however love helicopter games and this alongside the more arcade oriented Steel Talons, also on the Mega Drive, is one of my oldest favorites in that genre.
Steel Talons (Mega Drive)
Winter Challenge (Mega Drive)
Doom (32X)
My favorite version of Doom alongside the PSX port.
Metal Head (32X)
Essentially Armored Core on 32X, naturally a given favorite.
Virtua Racing Deluxe (32X)
While not my top favorite version of Virtua Racing, that honor goes to the SVP powered Mega Drive port, it's still one of my favorite games ever on one of my favorite systems ever.
Centipede (PSX)
While not quite on par with the next gen Dreamcast port this is still a fantastic version and due to how much easier it is to play a PlayStation game than a Dreamcast game it certainly has an edge of it's own, and when played on PS2 with texture filtering turned on there's even less of a difference between the two.
Also I don't think the Dreamcast version ever got released here in Europe so the PSX version was the only one available for me anyway. Great game though, even comes with the original arcade game so it's two games in one and I love that.
Iron Soldier 3 (PSX)
Not exactly an Armored Core killer but still a great mech game nonetheless. It retains what made the Jaguar 64 and Jaguar 64 CD games so good and improves the formula even further with the help of the superior power of the PlayStation. It may lack the flat-shaded polygonal charm of the Jaguar games but it makes up for it with technically superior visuals overall.
It's a tough game though, not one you just jump straight into and have a quick brawl guns a blazin', you have to be tactical and take your time, aim carefully and think and plan things out before you make your moves, your mech is big and heavy and controls like it, in that way it's very different from mech games in general from that era as most, at least on consoles, were more fast paced and action oriented.
I'd love to get hold of a Jaguar 64 and the original Iron Soldier games some day, I've tried the first one in the past and I loved it, which is why I was extra happy to get hold of this great sequel finally.
Kirikou (PSX)
A 2001 release exclusive to Europe, based on the first movie in the Kirikou series about an African boy who is very special indeed. It's a 2.5D platformer similar to some of Disney's greatest 2.5D platformers of the time like Hercules and Tarzan or other great 2.5D PSX classics like Klonoa and Tombi/Tomba, where you take on levels with multiple paths and lots of hidden secrets and all that good stuff. It re-enacts the events from the first film as you play as Kirikou literally from birth to coming face to face with the evil sorceress Karaba, on the way you must face her evil robots (called "fetishes") and make your way through the levels collecting water (essentially this game's equivalent to coins in Mario or rings in Sonic) and learning new abilities from the wise elder such as double jumping and other common game things.
It's easily one of the best 2.5D platformers I've played and I'm glad to own it. I didn't know about the game back when it was new but a few years ago when I found the movie on DVD and thought it looked interesting I got more into it and found out there were games released, multiple games actually, and sequels to the movie as well, so while I still haven't found much I now at least have the first game on PlayStation to go with the first movie on DVD, now I just need to find the PS2 game, the Game Boy Color game and the movie sequels!
Newman Haas Racing (PSX)
A 1998 release by Psygnosis and Bizarre Creations. It saddens me that I missed out on this one back when it was new but I'm glad to have discovered it now and I'm enjoying it very much, it's one of the best F1 style racing games I've ever played.
Re-Loaded (PSX)
A classic I played on PSX and MS-DOS back in the day but sadly never had myself and it's been over 15 years since I played it last. It lived up to my nostalgic memories and I've had a blast from the past with this one, a fantastic top-down action shooter and while I don't think it's better than the original Loaded I also don't think it's worse, they're equals but for different reasons, Loaded was a simpler, more straight forwards and notably more hectic shooter and thus a slightly better two-player experience this expands the missions and gameplay and makes for a better singleplayer experience, I'd say they compliment eachother perfectly and now I need to get hold of a copy the original Loaded so I can relive those nostalgic memories as well, we'll just have to wait and see how many more years that'll take to happen..
T'ai Fu Wrath of the Tiger (PSX)
A 1999 release by Dreamworks and the spiritual predecessor of Kung Fu Panda, a 3D platformer with lots of fighting and a great game I've played through numerous times in the past.
Viewpoint (PSX)
Not much to say about this one, it's a fantastic looking version of Viewpoint, identical to the other versions in gameplay and design but with a complete overhaul of the visuals and music. There's no competition for me, this is the superior way to play this already great game.
WinX Club (PC)
The old Konami developed WinX game that was also released on PS2 that's based on season 1 of the cartoon. I like this game and after having found a no-CD crack for it that worked so I don't have to get the disc out even though the game's been installed I finally got into the game. I really hate when PC games try to limit how I use them even after I've bought them, which is why I don't do PC gaming in general and don't acknowledge digital online gaming at all, if a game has only been released on Steam or something (Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Nintendo eShop etc.) I don't consider it to have ever been released at all.
Brahma Force (PSX)
An FPS mech sim action game with similarities to Armored Core, GunGriffon and Krazy Ivan among many more, I like it but it's not exactly killing the competition, I prefer pretty much all those other games over this, still it's pretty good and has some good stuff in it, it's not bad by any means but it does come with a lot of minor and medium sized problems. Forever and literally constant respawning of enemies are the cause to most of the issues I have.
KKND 2 Krossfire (PC)
I've only ever played this on PlayStation before so it's interesting to see how different it is, it's basically two different games in almost every way, the good thing about that is you can't directly compare the two and thus neither ends up being the "bad" one. I love when they do this rather than just make direct ports because this gives incentive to those who own and enjoy one to get the other as well. It's just as hard as I remember the PlayStation version to be, only for slightly different reasons. I haven't really played either enough to say much more at this point.
KKND Krossfire (PSX)
I remember having troubles with this game back in the day and now when I'm revisiting it and it's PC original I fully understand why as my memories of getting absolutely crushed by the enemy AI comes rushing back as a nightmare that I thought was long gone. This is a hard as fuck game regardless if it's played on PC or PSX, "easy" mode doesn't mean much in this game, the harder difficulties I can't even imagine what they're like. It's good though, not impossible, just very hard and unforgiving. You need to get good at this game to enjoy it, it asks of you to invest time to get something of equal or greater value back and honestly that's not a bad thing, some of the best games ever do this. It just would've been even better still if the game had eased you into it step by step a bit because you'll be losing big time for a while just to learn the basic controls and what any of all the stuff you can do actually does. Having some easier levels to begin with letting you get used to said basics before having the enemy rape your base's every orifice with death and defeat would've been greatly appreciated. These games really didn't need to ask that much of the player so early on, especially in a strategy game where missions can get rather lengthy. A hard platformer in comparison is usually hard but has short levels that are over in just a couple of minutes so getting back to the place you were and trying a different strategy to get better and win is less of a setback.
SEGA Arcade Gallery (Game Boy Advance)
V-Rally 3 (Game Boy Advance)
Eternal Champions (Mega Drive)
F22 Interceptor (Mega Drive)
I'm usually not a huge fan of flight sim games but a flat-shaded polygonal 3D flight sim on the Mega Drive that plays well and is fun is easily something I can make an exception for and thoroughly enjoy.
LHX Attack Chopper (Mega Drive)
I do however love helicopter games and this alongside the more arcade oriented Steel Talons, also on the Mega Drive, is one of my oldest favorites in that genre.
Steel Talons (Mega Drive)
Winter Challenge (Mega Drive)
Doom (32X)
My favorite version of Doom alongside the PSX port.
Metal Head (32X)
Essentially Armored Core on 32X, naturally a given favorite.
Virtua Racing Deluxe (32X)
While not my top favorite version of Virtua Racing, that honor goes to the SVP powered Mega Drive port, it's still one of my favorite games ever on one of my favorite systems ever.
Centipede (PSX)
While not quite on par with the next gen Dreamcast port this is still a fantastic version and due to how much easier it is to play a PlayStation game than a Dreamcast game it certainly has an edge of it's own, and when played on PS2 with texture filtering turned on there's even less of a difference between the two.
Also I don't think the Dreamcast version ever got released here in Europe so the PSX version was the only one available for me anyway. Great game though, even comes with the original arcade game so it's two games in one and I love that.
Iron Soldier 3 (PSX)
Not exactly an Armored Core killer but still a great mech game nonetheless. It retains what made the Jaguar 64 and Jaguar 64 CD games so good and improves the formula even further with the help of the superior power of the PlayStation. It may lack the flat-shaded polygonal charm of the Jaguar games but it makes up for it with technically superior visuals overall.
It's a tough game though, not one you just jump straight into and have a quick brawl guns a blazin', you have to be tactical and take your time, aim carefully and think and plan things out before you make your moves, your mech is big and heavy and controls like it, in that way it's very different from mech games in general from that era as most, at least on consoles, were more fast paced and action oriented.
I'd love to get hold of a Jaguar 64 and the original Iron Soldier games some day, I've tried the first one in the past and I loved it, which is why I was extra happy to get hold of this great sequel finally.
Kirikou (PSX)
A 2001 release exclusive to Europe, based on the first movie in the Kirikou series about an African boy who is very special indeed. It's a 2.5D platformer similar to some of Disney's greatest 2.5D platformers of the time like Hercules and Tarzan or other great 2.5D PSX classics like Klonoa and Tombi/Tomba, where you take on levels with multiple paths and lots of hidden secrets and all that good stuff. It re-enacts the events from the first film as you play as Kirikou literally from birth to coming face to face with the evil sorceress Karaba, on the way you must face her evil robots (called "fetishes") and make your way through the levels collecting water (essentially this game's equivalent to coins in Mario or rings in Sonic) and learning new abilities from the wise elder such as double jumping and other common game things.
It's easily one of the best 2.5D platformers I've played and I'm glad to own it. I didn't know about the game back when it was new but a few years ago when I found the movie on DVD and thought it looked interesting I got more into it and found out there were games released, multiple games actually, and sequels to the movie as well, so while I still haven't found much I now at least have the first game on PlayStation to go with the first movie on DVD, now I just need to find the PS2 game, the Game Boy Color game and the movie sequels!
Newman Haas Racing (PSX)
A 1998 release by Psygnosis and Bizarre Creations. It saddens me that I missed out on this one back when it was new but I'm glad to have discovered it now and I'm enjoying it very much, it's one of the best F1 style racing games I've ever played.
Re-Loaded (PSX)
A classic I played on PSX and MS-DOS back in the day but sadly never had myself and it's been over 15 years since I played it last. It lived up to my nostalgic memories and I've had a blast from the past with this one, a fantastic top-down action shooter and while I don't think it's better than the original Loaded I also don't think it's worse, they're equals but for different reasons, Loaded was a simpler, more straight forwards and notably more hectic shooter and thus a slightly better two-player experience this expands the missions and gameplay and makes for a better singleplayer experience, I'd say they compliment eachother perfectly and now I need to get hold of a copy the original Loaded so I can relive those nostalgic memories as well, we'll just have to wait and see how many more years that'll take to happen..
T'ai Fu Wrath of the Tiger (PSX)
A 1999 release by Dreamworks and the spiritual predecessor of Kung Fu Panda, a 3D platformer with lots of fighting and a great game I've played through numerous times in the past.
Viewpoint (PSX)
Not much to say about this one, it's a fantastic looking version of Viewpoint, identical to the other versions in gameplay and design but with a complete overhaul of the visuals and music. There's no competition for me, this is the superior way to play this already great game.
WinX Club (PC)
The old Konami developed WinX game that was also released on PS2 that's based on season 1 of the cartoon. I like this game and after having found a no-CD crack for it that worked so I don't have to get the disc out even though the game's been installed I finally got into the game. I really hate when PC games try to limit how I use them even after I've bought them, which is why I don't do PC gaming in general and don't acknowledge digital online gaming at all, if a game has only been released on Steam or something (Xbox Live, PlayStation Network, Nintendo eShop etc.) I don't consider it to have ever been released at all.
Brahma Force (PSX)
An FPS mech sim action game with similarities to Armored Core, GunGriffon and Krazy Ivan among many more, I like it but it's not exactly killing the competition, I prefer pretty much all those other games over this, still it's pretty good and has some good stuff in it, it's not bad by any means but it does come with a lot of minor and medium sized problems. Forever and literally constant respawning of enemies are the cause to most of the issues I have.
KKND 2 Krossfire (PC)
I've only ever played this on PlayStation before so it's interesting to see how different it is, it's basically two different games in almost every way, the good thing about that is you can't directly compare the two and thus neither ends up being the "bad" one. I love when they do this rather than just make direct ports because this gives incentive to those who own and enjoy one to get the other as well. It's just as hard as I remember the PlayStation version to be, only for slightly different reasons. I haven't really played either enough to say much more at this point.
KKND Krossfire (PSX)
I remember having troubles with this game back in the day and now when I'm revisiting it and it's PC original I fully understand why as my memories of getting absolutely crushed by the enemy AI comes rushing back as a nightmare that I thought was long gone. This is a hard as fuck game regardless if it's played on PC or PSX, "easy" mode doesn't mean much in this game, the harder difficulties I can't even imagine what they're like. It's good though, not impossible, just very hard and unforgiving. You need to get good at this game to enjoy it, it asks of you to invest time to get something of equal or greater value back and honestly that's not a bad thing, some of the best games ever do this. It just would've been even better still if the game had eased you into it step by step a bit because you'll be losing big time for a while just to learn the basic controls and what any of all the stuff you can do actually does. Having some easier levels to begin with letting you get used to said basics before having the enemy rape your base's every orifice with death and defeat would've been greatly appreciated. These games really didn't need to ask that much of the player so early on, especially in a strategy game where missions can get rather lengthy. A hard platformer in comparison is usually hard but has short levels that are over in just a couple of minutes so getting back to the place you were and trying a different strategy to get better and win is less of a setback.
SEGA Arcade Gallery (Game Boy Advance)
V-Rally 3 (Game Boy Advance)
Gaming Purchases - Maj 2016
May 3rd:
Some tuesday second hand finds.
PC Games:
Best Friends Horse & Pony My Horse
Hugo Heroes of the Savannah
KA-52 Team Alligator
Nuclear Strike
Serious Sam The Second Encounter
Silent Hill Homecoming
PC Other:
2x Diskette storage cases
(which I'm now using to house my Mega Drive and 32X games, similar to a Nin10case)
DVD:
Balto Wolf Quest
Other:
various comics (various W.I.T.C.H., The Simpsons and Magic Fantasy)
various manga comics (various Manga Mania)
various manga pocket comics (Chrono Crusade Vol. 2, Demon Diary Vol. 5, Negima! Magister Negi Magi Omnibus Vol. 1-3, Rebirth Vol. 4)
4x framed paintings
and a box with some various LEGO Bionicle
Maj 17th:
Some tuesday second hand finds.
PC Games:
Bratz 4 Real
Kill Switch
KKND 2 Krossfire
OutRun 2006 Coast 2 Coast
Vanguard Saga of Heroes
DVD:
Marvel Thor Tales of Asgård
Mary Poppins 2-Disc Special Edition
CD:
Dir en grey - Cage
Malice Mizer - Color Me Blood Red
Malice Mizer - de l'image
also some books and a small lamp.
Maj 24th:
Some tuesday second hand finds.
PC Games:
Disney Princess Cinderella's Fairy Castles
Hugo Volcano Island
Rayman 3 Hoodlum Havoc
DVD
Hop
Other:
Maneki-neko Piggy bank Halina Slide Viewer
Comics:
Agent X9
Also a bag full of toy cars like Hot Wheels, Majorette, Disney's Cars, a couple of Legos and some other off-brand stuff.
Maj 31th:
Some tuesday second hand finds.
Skylanders:
Portal of Power
Some tuesday second hand finds.
PC Games:
Best Friends Horse & Pony My Horse
Hugo Heroes of the Savannah
KA-52 Team Alligator
Nuclear Strike
Serious Sam The Second Encounter
Silent Hill Homecoming
PC Other:
2x Diskette storage cases
(which I'm now using to house my Mega Drive and 32X games, similar to a Nin10case)
DVD:
Balto Wolf Quest
Other:
various comics (various W.I.T.C.H., The Simpsons and Magic Fantasy)
various manga comics (various Manga Mania)
various manga pocket comics (Chrono Crusade Vol. 2, Demon Diary Vol. 5, Negima! Magister Negi Magi Omnibus Vol. 1-3, Rebirth Vol. 4)
4x framed paintings
and a box with some various LEGO Bionicle
Maj 17th:
Some tuesday second hand finds.
PC Games:
Bratz 4 Real
Kill Switch
KKND 2 Krossfire
OutRun 2006 Coast 2 Coast
Vanguard Saga of Heroes
DVD:
Marvel Thor Tales of Asgård
Mary Poppins 2-Disc Special Edition
CD:
Dir en grey - Cage
Malice Mizer - Color Me Blood Red
Malice Mizer - de l'image
also some books and a small lamp.
Maj 24th:
Some tuesday second hand finds.
PC Games:
Disney Princess Cinderella's Fairy Castles
Hugo Volcano Island
Rayman 3 Hoodlum Havoc
DVD
Hop
Other:
Maneki-neko Piggy bank Halina Slide Viewer
Comics:
Agent X9
Also a bag full of toy cars like Hot Wheels, Majorette, Disney's Cars, a couple of Legos and some other off-brand stuff.
Maj 31th:
Some tuesday second hand finds.
Skylanders:
Portal of Power
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Gaming Purchases - April 2016
April 5th:
Today's second hand finds included a PC game, none other than classic Saturn exclusive Enemy Zero, the second game in WARP's D series (D2 on Dreamcast being the third and final game in the series and final game WARP made before shutting down permanently).
Enemy Zero is a 1996 sci-fi survival horror game with first person shooting, stealth mechanics, a mix between cinematic FMV and real-time 3D exploration gameplay and a unique battle system that uses audio cues rather than visual on-screen cues to locate and take out the alien enemies.
Originally developed as a PlayStation exclusive it was changed to Saturn only after Sony had poorly handled the release of the original D causing the director of Enemy Zero and founder of WARP to port the entire project over to Saturn and make the series and all other future games Sega exclusive from that point onward, the original D was a multiplatform game released on just about every 32-bit disc-based system at the time including the 3DO, PSX and Saturn.
Enemy Zero was one of the very few games for Saturn that came on 4 discs, which was a bit more common on PlayStation with games like Final Fantasy VIII and Fear Effect 2 Retro Helix for example.
Enemy Zero was originally released on December 13th of 1996 for Sega Saturn in Japan, later in 1997 it was released in the other regions worldwide and finally in 1998 it got ported to PC, initially released under the SEGA PC brand.
The version I got hold on is the more recent and much more common here in Europe these days re-release under the popular but nowadays defunct Xplosiv brand by UK-based Empire Interactive Entertainment that also re-released many other SEGA PC classics like Panzer Dragoon, House of the Dead 2, Virtua Fighter, Virtua Fighter 2 (that I also got hold of relatively recently), Sega Rally Championship, Sonic & Knuckles Collection, Sonic 3D Flickies' Island, Sonic R, Virtua Cop 2 etc. etc..
PC:
Enemy Zero (Xplosiv re-release, still factory sealed)
April 26th:
Today's second hand finds included some PC games, some FIFA games for PS3, some PSP UMD movies, some DVDs, some multi CD cases, some W.I.T.C.H. comics, a pocket manga Kajika by Akira Toriyama, a PC video card to component and S-Video converter cable, a small pocket mirror, a magnetic massage thing with rounded spiky balls and a bunch of 5-10 year old videogame magazines.
PSP UMD Movies:
Charlie & The Chocolate Factory
Kill Bill
Kill Bill 2
(2x) Pusher 3
PlayStation 3:
FIFA 11
FIFA 12 (no manual)
FIFA 13
PC:
IMP #005 Hydrael
IMP #007 Kentaurus
IMP #012 Frostmork
IMP #024 Kosmoeus
IMP #025 Megamammon
IMP #027 Ghoulak
IMP #033 Vulkanicus
IMP #046 Buttgod (yes, that's his actual name)
IMP, for those who are not in the know what this game is, was a 1-on-1 arena style fighting game/monster collecting game for PC by the Swedish developer Idol FX and came out for Windows 98/2000 in 2001.
The idea was that you would purchase separate CD-ROMs for each monster you wanted at a lower price than buying a full game on just one disc, needless to say if they had been very cheap and distributed on a larger scale with proper backing and funding by some bigger brand with advertising abilities and all that it might've worked, sadly they were rather expensive for just one monster per disc and on top of that very hard to find as very select few stores ever sold them. I only ever found them in one local store myself. So it didn't last and never became a big thing like Pokemon, Digimon, Monster Rancher, Jade Cocoon and so on.
I don't have all of them but I've managed to get hold of quite a few over the years. I originally bought a bunch when they were new and have since found wayward copies in different second hand shops. I rather liked the monster designs so whenever I see an IMP lost out there in the wild I just gotta catch it.
April 28th:
On April 25th I placed an order for some games that arrived for pickup two days later on April 27th and today, April 28th I went and picked them up.
It's a bigger order that I've had to wait a while to do because the site I ordered it from had some bug in the homepage which didn't allow me to use points I had earned which would've made it more expensive. It was already an expensive order so I had to wait if I wanted to afford to place it at all, during this time several of the games I wanted sadly got sold out and I'll probably not be able to get hold of them again for years if ever, they are simply that rare here, so I'm disappointed that it took well over two months for them to fix their homepage until I got my points. Also now when I got the order two of the games that we supposed to have manuals and be "complete" were missing the manuals. So another disappointment. A third disappointment was that they made some prices higher, and a lot higher at that, for some other games I wanted to the point were even with my points I couldn't afford them and didn't really want to buy them anymore because I don't think they're worth that much, so I had to skip buying them as well.
Simply put I only got about two thirds of the order I originally had planned to buy only two months later than I wanted and it still cost about the same, so not a super great experience overall that I'll not soon forget.
Regardless of the negatives I finally have some 32X games of my very own, I got some nice classics for PlayStation that I've been on the hunt for and my collection for Mega Drive and PlayStation Portable got a little bigger as well.
Mega Drive:
F22 Interceptor (no manual)
LHX Attack Chopper (no manual)
Retro-bit RetroGen 6-button Controller
32X:
DOOM
Metal Head
Virtua Racing Deluxe
PlayStation:
Centipede
Iron Soldier 3
Kirikou
Newman Haas Racing
T'ai Fu Wrath of the Tiger (no manual)
Re-Loaded (no manual)
Star Wars Rebel Assault II The Hidden Empire (no manual)
Viewpoint (no manual)
PlayStation Portable:
Key of Heaven
L.A. Rush
Today's second hand finds included a PC game, none other than classic Saturn exclusive Enemy Zero, the second game in WARP's D series (D2 on Dreamcast being the third and final game in the series and final game WARP made before shutting down permanently).
Enemy Zero is a 1996 sci-fi survival horror game with first person shooting, stealth mechanics, a mix between cinematic FMV and real-time 3D exploration gameplay and a unique battle system that uses audio cues rather than visual on-screen cues to locate and take out the alien enemies.
Originally developed as a PlayStation exclusive it was changed to Saturn only after Sony had poorly handled the release of the original D causing the director of Enemy Zero and founder of WARP to port the entire project over to Saturn and make the series and all other future games Sega exclusive from that point onward, the original D was a multiplatform game released on just about every 32-bit disc-based system at the time including the 3DO, PSX and Saturn.
Enemy Zero was one of the very few games for Saturn that came on 4 discs, which was a bit more common on PlayStation with games like Final Fantasy VIII and Fear Effect 2 Retro Helix for example.
Enemy Zero was originally released on December 13th of 1996 for Sega Saturn in Japan, later in 1997 it was released in the other regions worldwide and finally in 1998 it got ported to PC, initially released under the SEGA PC brand.
The version I got hold on is the more recent and much more common here in Europe these days re-release under the popular but nowadays defunct Xplosiv brand by UK-based Empire Interactive Entertainment that also re-released many other SEGA PC classics like Panzer Dragoon, House of the Dead 2, Virtua Fighter, Virtua Fighter 2 (that I also got hold of relatively recently), Sega Rally Championship, Sonic & Knuckles Collection, Sonic 3D Flickies' Island, Sonic R, Virtua Cop 2 etc. etc..
PC:
Enemy Zero (Xplosiv re-release, still factory sealed)
April 26th:
Today's second hand finds included some PC games, some FIFA games for PS3, some PSP UMD movies, some DVDs, some multi CD cases, some W.I.T.C.H. comics, a pocket manga Kajika by Akira Toriyama, a PC video card to component and S-Video converter cable, a small pocket mirror, a magnetic massage thing with rounded spiky balls and a bunch of 5-10 year old videogame magazines.
PSP UMD Movies:
Charlie & The Chocolate Factory
Kill Bill
Kill Bill 2
(2x) Pusher 3
PlayStation 3:
FIFA 11
FIFA 12 (no manual)
FIFA 13
PC:
IMP #005 Hydrael
IMP #007 Kentaurus
IMP #012 Frostmork
IMP #024 Kosmoeus
IMP #025 Megamammon
IMP #027 Ghoulak
IMP #033 Vulkanicus
IMP #046 Buttgod (yes, that's his actual name)
IMP, for those who are not in the know what this game is, was a 1-on-1 arena style fighting game/monster collecting game for PC by the Swedish developer Idol FX and came out for Windows 98/2000 in 2001.
The idea was that you would purchase separate CD-ROMs for each monster you wanted at a lower price than buying a full game on just one disc, needless to say if they had been very cheap and distributed on a larger scale with proper backing and funding by some bigger brand with advertising abilities and all that it might've worked, sadly they were rather expensive for just one monster per disc and on top of that very hard to find as very select few stores ever sold them. I only ever found them in one local store myself. So it didn't last and never became a big thing like Pokemon, Digimon, Monster Rancher, Jade Cocoon and so on.
I don't have all of them but I've managed to get hold of quite a few over the years. I originally bought a bunch when they were new and have since found wayward copies in different second hand shops. I rather liked the monster designs so whenever I see an IMP lost out there in the wild I just gotta catch it.
April 28th:
On April 25th I placed an order for some games that arrived for pickup two days later on April 27th and today, April 28th I went and picked them up.
It's a bigger order that I've had to wait a while to do because the site I ordered it from had some bug in the homepage which didn't allow me to use points I had earned which would've made it more expensive. It was already an expensive order so I had to wait if I wanted to afford to place it at all, during this time several of the games I wanted sadly got sold out and I'll probably not be able to get hold of them again for years if ever, they are simply that rare here, so I'm disappointed that it took well over two months for them to fix their homepage until I got my points. Also now when I got the order two of the games that we supposed to have manuals and be "complete" were missing the manuals. So another disappointment. A third disappointment was that they made some prices higher, and a lot higher at that, for some other games I wanted to the point were even with my points I couldn't afford them and didn't really want to buy them anymore because I don't think they're worth that much, so I had to skip buying them as well.
Simply put I only got about two thirds of the order I originally had planned to buy only two months later than I wanted and it still cost about the same, so not a super great experience overall that I'll not soon forget.
Regardless of the negatives I finally have some 32X games of my very own, I got some nice classics for PlayStation that I've been on the hunt for and my collection for Mega Drive and PlayStation Portable got a little bigger as well.
Mega Drive:
F22 Interceptor (no manual)
LHX Attack Chopper (no manual)
Retro-bit RetroGen 6-button Controller
32X:
DOOM
Metal Head
Virtua Racing Deluxe
PlayStation:
Centipede
Iron Soldier 3
Kirikou
Newman Haas Racing
T'ai Fu Wrath of the Tiger (no manual)
Re-Loaded (no manual)
Star Wars Rebel Assault II The Hidden Empire (no manual)
Viewpoint (no manual)
PlayStation Portable:
Key of Heaven
L.A. Rush
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