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Posted on Feb 20th 2012 at 02:44:29 PM by ( noiseredux) Posted under plug |
Some of you may have noticed that my blog has been a little quiet the past couple months. Well, that's because I've been focusing on my own site, Yard Sale Gaming. Now, I certainly don't intend to leave RFG, but this blog will now serve completely as my personal blog. Which I guess it always did to an extent, but now the sort of informational series overviews or game reviews proper will most likely appear on YSG leaving the blog there as more opinion-related content.
At any rate, hope you all at least take a peak at YSG: yardsalegaming.wordpress.com
Thanks!
A while back I started collecting issues of PSM, which is one of my favorite PlayStation magazines. I suppose it's the "100% independent" part of it -- the idea that the views may be a bit more unbiased than those coming form Official PlayStation Magazine. Or maybe it's just how cool a lot of the cover art was. Who knows? But with Black Friday's arrival, I felt the urge to look back at the 2002 Holiday Buyer's Guide issue... from 2002. So let's see what PSM was urging everyone to shove under the tree 9 years ago, shall we?
Continue reading PSM: Holiday 2002, Issue 66
So for some reason I started thinking about PS2 games that could go online. I decided to start researching which ones might still have their servers online, and I found a pretty awesome site: http://www.ps2onlinegaming.com/ which is apparently still pretty active. I also did some poking around elsewhere and found that it was quite possible for me to take my PS2 games online even using my 60GB PS3. Considering how many of us have large collections of PS2 games, I thought it'd be fun to organize an informative guide outlining the process of getting online, and which games are still online so that we can all try to play some last-gen games together live.
Continue reading PlayStation 2 Online Guide
So I've sort of gotten into this habit lately of updating my blog everytime I beat a game. And that sort of overlaps the fact that I've been using this blog to chronicle my budding Dreamcast collection over the past two months (over 20 games now!). And THAT overlaps the fact that as I'm collecting DC games, I'm also trying very hard to spend time playing them and attempting to actually beat games instead of just building up a huge backlog of untouched games. So as such, I bring you Street Fighter Alpha 3.
Now let me first say that although I'm a huge fan of Street Fighter II, I really had limited experience with the Alpha series. I had played a bit of the first game's Game Boy Color port, as well as the third game's Game Boy Advance port. And although the GBA game is certainly impressive, it didn't really prepare me for the near-perfect arcade experiene I got out of the Dreamcast. The graphics in Alpha 3 are incredible, with bright colors popping off the screen. And the animations are fluid as hell, even at breakneck speeds.
Now first off I encountered nothing but frustration. I picked my usual Street Fighter, Chun-Li only to find that none of her moves worked. It's a strange feeling to control Chun-Li and tap away at a kick button furiously to find that she does do the expected move. But after a bit of reading, it turns out this has to do with the Isms, or play-styles. Changing Chun-Li's style to X-Ism brought her move set far closer to that of Street Fighter II (except I had no projectile attack). Once I figured this out, I was able to make my way through arcade mode pretty quickly. It was a blast taking on all these unfamiliar characters, having to fight Juni and Juli at the same time, and eventually ending up in a showdown with M. Bison once again.
But perhaps the craziest thing is that I beat the game using a standard Dreamcast controller. Not by choice, I tell you. I just can't find a fightpad I can afford. Sure I have an Agetec stick, but I'm no good at fighting games with a stick -- those are purely for shmups. So in the end I guess I'm just slowly getting used to this stupid controller. Something I never thought would happen!
Having recently played through Gunbird 2 -- another vertical shmup published by Capcom -- I assumed that I knew what was in store with me when I popped in GigaWing. Apparently I had no idea about the punch-you-in-the-crotch difficult game that was ahead of me, though. I recently decided that I would approach shmups by playing through them on the easiest difficulty first, and then incrementally attempting to take on harder levels of difficulty. But what I found was that even on the easiest difficulty (level 1 out of 5), GigaWing was amazingly tough.
Which is not to say I didn't like the game. I did. It's just that the challenge caught me off guard. But really it's a great looking game, with wonderful sprite-work and an onslaught of bullets that never slow the system down for a second. The music is fittingly good techno tunes, though strangely the boss battle music sounded very close to the Mortal Kombat theme song. (Remember? dun-nuh-dun-nuh-dun-NUH-dun-nuh-DUH-DUH!). I can't really comment on the story, as I own the Japanese version. But then again, I've never been one to pay close attention to storylines in shmups.
I am curious though -- is GigaWing as hard as I think it is? I mean, I'm no shmup expert, but I do pretty well and I've played quite a few. Was I just having an off day? Have any of you freaks actually 1CC'd this thing? Seems impossible to me.
I'm taking a bit of a different approach to collecting Dreamcast games. I'm going slow. In the past with other consoles I've felt a need to hoard. Then I end up with mountains of games I've never even tried. With Dreamcast I've decided to take my time. I have just over a dozen games so far. But I'm trying to get ones I really want to play, and then spend serious time with them.
I loved the first Gunbird on PS1 (released in America as Mobile Light Force). And I must say the second is even better. It's got everything that made the first so great -- cutesy witches, colorful bullets in mesmerizing patterns, excellent music, fantastic sprite work -- but the second game has Morrigan!
Normally when I get a new shmup I quarter-feed my way through it the first time. I figure that the goal of most shmups is to continually get better at it. Serious shmuppers are of course always after that 1CC. However I realized something; what's the point of quarter-feeding really? Why not just start at the easiest mode and work your way up? This kind of makes more sense to me. It's a slow progression, where you get better from practice but the game gets harder with each new difficulty.
And I'll be glad to spend some time getting better at Gunbird 2. It's really a wonderful game that I'd highly recommend to all shoot-em-up fans who may have overlooked it.
I am an not a huge fan of 3D fighting games, but Dead Or Alive surprised me back on the the PlayStation. However, the PS2 release of DOA: Hardcore didn't really do as much for me as the original game. For some reason, it just didn't even feel like it was good enough (in appearance or gameplay) to be a PS2 game. The funny thing is, Hardcore was actually an upgraded revision of Dead Or Alive 2 for Dreamcast. And yet, I find this original version (there were apparently eleven variations of DOA2 released throughout various regions and systems) to be completely amazing.
Perhaps part of it is that I can't even believe how great this game looks running on 1999 hardware. The jump from blockiness to this is staggering from the first game to the second. I also found the controls far more responsive than in the original -- though of course the DC controller is not meant for fighters. Luckily the Agetec arcade stick exists, as I wouldn't have been able to play this game otherwise. (I should also mention I'm trying to get my hands on one of those Ascii fight pads if anyone has one they want to trade). The music is also incredible. After running through Story Mode with Kasumi, I cranked the end credits music and pondered seeking out the soundtrack.
As you can see, my new Dreamcast collection is slowly growing. I'm just around a dozen games now. But it looks like I have a rather amazing library to disover ahead of me.
Hyperdimension Neptunia seems to be one of the most divisive games of the year. You either love it or you hate it. And I love it. Where to begin? It's a crazy collaboration between the likes of NIS, Compile Heart, Sega and Idea Factory. It's an extreme JRPG, but seems to be making fun of JRPG's. It's got some of the most moe artwork I've seen localized in a while. It's dialogue is ridiculously hilarious. It has a simplified overworld system where you don't actually walk from place to place, but instead choose chapters from a list. It also simplifies item management. It uses a strange setup where you utilize button combos for your attacks. Instead of spells, you summon old Sega games like Altered Beast or Fantasy Zone. To put it simply, it's kind of insane. And like I said, I love it.
Our heroine is named Neptune. This is actually a personification of the failed Sega Neptune hardware. In fact all of the goddesses in the game are based on consoles. That's because the game is basically an allegory about the console wars. You see it's only when "Nintendo," "Sony," and "Microsoft" team together that they can destroy Neptune. This personification of companies leads to great fan-service jokes. Early in the game Vert (Microsoft) talks about how her breasts are so much larger than Neptunes that it's obvious that that implies she is more powerful -- a sly jab at Microsoft's ridiculously large Xbox (and its controller).
And the whole game is full of rib-jabs to video game nerds. Early on you fight things that look like Space Invaders as well as Dragon Quest-inspired slimes. Your quest is of course to save the land of Gameindustri. Even the developers poke fun at themselves with the visual novel style interface and dialogue that seems to make light of the very games that have put each of them on the map.
I'll be the first to say that this game is not for everyone. It definitely takes a certain kind of fan to find this game appealing. But for those of us that do, it's one of the most unique RPG's to hit US consoles in quite some time. Oddly enough it even inspired me to go out and get a Dreamcast. You see it's such a strange game, I couldn't help but feel like Neptune (Sega) was telling me -- 'hey! If the Dreamcast was still around today, THESE are the kind of games that would be on it.'
A lot of my gaming friends on the interwebs seem to totally adore the Sega Dreamcast. And to an extent, I've always understood why. I mean, it was short-lived, but it was certainly an exciting period in gaming. It was a console that embraced new things like online gameplay and strange accessories. It was also a dream machine for arcade gamers, with 2D fighters, shmups and racing games galore. But more interestingly it was home to some seriously strange experiments. Games like Seaman, Space Channel 5 and Shenmue. But something kept me away for a long time. It was nothing personal against the Dreamcast, I just didn't feel like I needed another console to collect for.
That being said, I've always kept an eye on Dreamcast news. I always found it an interesting and respectable console. And then something weird happened. I found myself with a considerable amount of retro-store game credit, and nothing in particular to spend it on. And then somebody offered to trade me a Dreamcast for an Xbox which I had saved from a yard sale, but let collect dust for several months. I knew this was it. This was time for me to finally bite the bullet and explore the Dreamcast world proper rather than just read about it.
Continue reading The Sega Swirl
Well, the last weekend of August is here, and with that my Summer Gaming challenge whimpers out. I'm sad to say that although I went into this in June with guns blazing, I'm left with six of my ten games unfinished. Why did I fail to such a degree? For one thing I seemed to have chosen a lot of longer and more involved games. You'll notice that the ones I beat were a lot more arcade-style.
So let's take a look at what I'm left with...
Chrono Trigger is definitely the game I enjoyed most out of the unfinished pile. It's also the one I spent the most time on. Truth be told, it was one of the first Summer Games that I started playing in June. And I kept up with it on and off throughout the three months. In the end, I put fourteen good hours into it and made it up to the twin Golem boss fight. Unfortunately, I just didn't have the right equipment to finish the fight. And one thing that I hate doing is backtracking. So I ended up just sort of stalling right there. Admittedly, this is one game I do plan to eventually pick up and finish. Just not in the next few days.
After years of assuming it just wouldn't be my sort of game, I am now officially a fan of the Metal Gear Solid franchise. I found everything about the game utterly brilliant, and again I do plan to eventually finish this one as well. The hard truth is that I'm just not good at the game, no matter how much I like it. So even if it is considered a shorter game, it's taking me a lot longer than it probably should.
Duke Nukem 3D turns out to be a lot of fun. And I was playing it for the first time as all the hype about Duke Nukem Forever being a catastrophe was hitting hard. So that was interesting timing, too. I found the levels to be excellent, and basically it's the kind of FPS I really enjoy. However, like MGS, I'm just not great at FPS games. So each level would take me like an hour. It was slow progress and I stopped somewhere around one-fourth of the way through the PS1's extended version of the game. I don't know if I'll have finish the entire game, really. But I'm sure I'll revisit it and make more progress anyway.
I was warned not to include R-Type Delta on my list for the simple reason that I just would not be able to beat it. I laughed. Surely if I put some time into it and memorized levels and enemy patterns, I certainly could beat it! I had no problem making it through the first level without losing a ship. But level two. Woah. I lost them all. Fast. And as it turns out, Delta really is one big jerk of a game. Don't get me wrong, sometimes it's fun to take abuse. But there was no way I was going to beat this one.
Myst is a game I played for about fifteen minutes. And y'know what? I don't think I like it.
Unfortunately Silent Hill is the one game I didn't get a chance to start up. It's also the one game on my list that I had played some of prior to the challenge. At any rate, I obviously plan to play through this sometime in the future. I'm actually contemplating attempting a similar Winter Challenge later this year. So we'll see...
Well, it's official. I beat my fourth Summer Gaming pick. Appropriately enough, it was Mega Man X4. And wow. Let me start by saying that the first X game was, and is one of my all time favorite Mega Man games. In fact, it would rival Mega Man 2 and 3 for the top spot as my definitive favorite. Truth be told, I've probably spent the most time with X above all others. And yet I can say with all honesty that I enjoyed this game just as much. It really brought back memories of how exciting it was playing through the first game. You see strangely, I haven't really played most of the other entries in the X series. I suppose because of all the talk of the series having gone down-hill over the years. But X4 is a true masterpiece to me.
Oh, before I forgot I want to plug this excellent article by Alex Reo about X4. It was published in GameSpite Quarterly #8, and I had just read it around the time I was picking my Summer Gaming list. My friend Flake had urged me to add the game to my list, and upon reading this how could I argue? So here: http://www.gamespite.net/...ex.php/Games/G8-MegaManX4
 
Now the thing about X4 is it does having stretch marks from the growing pains of 16-bit moving onto 32-bit. But your own perception will decide what to make of the hilarious voice acting, the need to included anime cutscenes, and so on. I however loved every moment of this game. The silly voices were endearing. The fact that the double agent robot was named Double made me smirk. The music was great, the sprite work to die for and the detail incredible. There were levels where I'd just stop and look at all the little things -- like water trickling -- that just totally showed off the PlayStation's graphical abilities. Remember, we were supposed to believe that it didn't handle 2D games well.
Admittedly, I blew through most of the game pretty quickly. Then went back to look for E-Tanks and other upgrades. But really the bulk of my time was spent on the last stage. I can't tell you how many times I went through that boss-rush. I can only tell you that I can beat all eight robot masters in under ten minutes. Usually without taking a lick of damage. But the last Sigma battle is intense. He takes three (or technically four) forms that get progressively harder. It's not something you can luckily blast your way through. And as frustrated as I got trying and re-trying, it really made me realize how much I loved the game. I never wanted to stop playing in disgust. I just wanted to get good enough to see the end credits. Like so:
Chrono Trigger
Dead Or Alive
Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown
Mega Man X4
Metal Gear Solid
Mr. Driller
Myst
Ridge Racer
R-Type Delta
Silent Hill
I'm not sure which game I'll focus on next. Probably Chrono Trigger, Metal Gear Solid, or Duke Nukem as those are the three I've spent time with already this Summer.
So I finally beat a third game from my Summer Gaming list. Ridge Racer is of course the classic PS1 launch title that showed off Sony's new piece of hardware as a viable option for near arcade perfection. (See: dsheinem's blog for a wonderful post on this game's release). This was a game I had at least tried before this Summer, but never spent any real time with. Now before I get started, brief disclaimer: when I say I beat Ridge Racer, I mean I beat it on Mid-Level. To me, that's beaten -- at least for the purposes of this challenge. My goal with these games was to get through them for once. To play them to the extent that I get to the end credits, and can say that I've honestly experienced the games to a point where I can have an actual educated opinion on them. So although I didn't try to beat it on the hardest mode -- I'm just not a completionist gamer. I don't care about unlocking everything, achievements, 100% or any of that kind of thing. To me, it's about the experience and having fun.
 
So what did I think of the game?
First, The Good: Ridge Racer looks phenomenal, even now. I mean I'm playing this on a PS3 and still impressed with what Namco was able to pull off all those years ago. The game feels great as an arcade racer. Though it certainly doesn't trump OutRun in my opinion for pure arcade racing thrill -- it is a blast. The Galaxian mini-game to unlock more cars is unique and actually makes the loading screen fun.
The Bad: Really the whole game is just one track. I mean, the track gets switched up a bit depending on difficulty level, and you can even race it backwards. But still. One track. Certainly this wasn't a big deal upon its release, but by today's standards this felt very limited to me, making the game slightly boring to keep reattempting. Also, I found that drifting never really clicked with me. I peeled out a lot, even using the car with the best traction. The other thing I found was that I handled curves much better playing in first-person view, which kind of irked me as I much preferred the third person perspective otherwise.
Ultimately, I'm glad I spent the time to get through this one. It's still fun and challenging today. But more likely I'd next check out a sequel with more tracks than come back and revisit the original again.
Chrono Trigger
Dead Or Alive
Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown
Mega Man X4
Metal Gear Solid
Mr. Driller
Myst
Ridge Racer
R-Type Delta
Silent Hill
As for other games, Chrono Trigger I need to get back into. I kind of stopped around the 10 hour mark. I'm somewhere around the third or fourth mission of Duke Nukem. Mega Man X4 is still infuriating me, as I can easily make it up to Sigma, but he kills me in his final form even though I have two E-tanks. And I recently started playing Metal Gear Solid, in which I'm about an hour and a half into and really impressed by.
Last night I beat the second game on my Summer Gaming list, Dead Or Alive. Of course the series is rather infamous for its shapely fighters, but I really didn't have much experience with them. However the wonderful article about the series on http://HardCoreGaming101.net had always made me curious. And it being an infamous game only made me want to give it a try even more.
I should say that I'm most interested in 2D fighting games. However I've dabbled in some 3D and borderliners: Tekken, Soul Calibur II, Battle Arena Toshinden, etc. Upon firing DOA up I was immediately reminded of Virtua Fighter 2 which I had played -- and hated -- in the past.
 
I decided to go with Kasumi, as she was the one I recognized from reading about the series. Of course I knew Ryu from Ninja Gaiden, but let's be honest. If you're going to play a game known for its bounciness, then why pick a dude? That would take away some of the campiness of being exposed to it for the first time.
Usually when I play a 2D fighter for the first time, it really doesn't take me long to complete the arcade mode. Generally speaking, it's a one or two session deal for me to get used to the controls and make it through. But Dead Or Alive turned out to be something totally different to me. I expected long matches with lots of special moves. Instead I realized that matches could be over in a matter of seconds if the AI unleashed a particularly brutal combo. So instead it took me a good four or five sittings of getting used to controls, and learning some strategy to get through the Tournament Mode. Indeed DOA turned out to be a far deeper fighter than I expected. I had to learn patience for one. This wasn't the sort of game where you could always just rush at an opponent. No, I actually had to play quite defensively at times. But after enough practice -- and admittedly some frustrated button mashing -- I came out victorious.
All in all, I thought it was a pretty fun game. Certainly it was a bit rough around its edges. But I liked it way more than Virtua Fighter 2. And I liked enough that I plan on playing some of the sequels as well. Who knows, maybe I'll even subject myself to the movie as an added element of camp?
Chrono Trigger
Dead Or Alive
Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown
Mega Man X4
Metal Gear Solid
Mr. Driller
Myst
Ridge Racer
R-Type Delta
Silent Hill
As for the rest of my list, I'm about nine hours into Chrono Trigger, I still need to figure out how to kill the third Sigma in Mega Man X4 and I've bean the Beginner track on Ridge Racer.
Welcome to a special co-production of the Transitions Blog and Game Boy Player Land. We teamed up to investigate the launch of the Game Boy Advance, a system which was released ten years ago this week in North America and went on to sell over 80 million units worldwide over the next decade.
Continue reading on dsheinem's blog: http://www.rfgeneration.c...y-Advance-Launch-1772.php
So the first of my Summer Gaming Challenge titles can now be ceremonially crossed off the list. This morning I beat Mr. Driller. Now disclaimer: when I say "beat," I mean I got to the end credits. I actually beat the Arcade Mode on Beginner. In this case I feel I can consider the game beat because well, it's a puzzle game. And the Arcade Mode on Expert is the same exact thing except you need to get through double the levels of Beginner. I'm sure if I stuck with it long enough I could do that no problem. In truth, I played Mr. Driller for the first time this morning. And a couple hours later it was beaten. The other reason I really don't feel I need to attack Expert for this challenge is because really my goal is to get through these games to see an ending and feel that I've experienced them. In this case, I feel that playing through the Beginner Arcade Mode was enough to know I've experienced the game.
 
So what did I think of it? Well, I thought it was pretty great honestly. I'm a fan of puzzle games to begin with, and this one hit the spot. It had a really good blend of strategy, where you have to kind of try to be patient and plan your moves mixed with urgency, because if you hang around too long you'll run out of air (basically a time limit that can be extended by finding Air Items throughout the levels). Visually, I thought the game looked fantastic. The bright candy-colored levels and cutesy design of Mr. Driller himself was really a great visual style for a game like this. Considered a spiritual sequel to Dig-Dug, I'd say I far prefer Mr. Driller to be totally up-front. I do think it could have benefited from a 2-Player mode, though. Just a thought.
 
Chrono Trigger
Dead Or Alive
Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown
Mega Man X4
Metal Gear Solid
Mr. Driller
Myst
Ridge Racer
R-Type Delta
Silent Hill
So moving on... I'm actually very far into Mega Man X4. As in all the way up to the last boss, so I expect to finish that one soon. I'm about six hours into Chrono Trigger, which really I'm not sure how far into the game that is. I've also dabbled a bit in Ridge Racer and Dead Or Alive. Really I've just been trying to bounce around between the games based on my mood. At any rate, it feels good to finally have one finished.
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