For years now the Xbox 360 controller has been the de facto controller of choice for PC gamers. It's sturdy, comfortable, and because it's made by Microsoft, it had plug and play drivers for Windows right out of the box. It's been the standard to such a degree that the vast majority of PC games even use its buttons' colors and lettering scheme by default. It's now just assumed that this is the controller that you're using. So when the Xbox One was announced, along with a new controller, it was a bit exciting for PC gamers as well. However, there were no drivers to use it on PC available at launch. Until now. So let's take a look at how it stands up as the new PC controller of choice, shall we?
Continue reading Review: Xbox One Controller
Escape Goat 2
2014, Magical Time Bean
There's a really popular indie game about goats that came out this year. It's a glitchy, open-world mess of a game. And Escape Goat 2 isn't it. Instead, Escape Goat 2 is an amazing puzzle-platformer with tight controls, excellent level design, an old school sensibility, and gorgeous HD visuals. Also, it has a mouse that wears a hat. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's slow down and take a look at this excellent game.
Continue reading Review: Escape Goat 2
For years, console gamers have stayed away from PC games because they prefer sitting on a couch and playing games with a controller on their TV sets. Thanks to the advent of HDTV, the future is now. With each day that passes, the line between console gaming and PC gaming is blurred even further. And while "next gen" consoles are now current gen, some of us have opted to just stick with PC's as our consoles of choice. The industry has recognized this trend and Valve has announced the living room friendly Steam Machine line of consoles which aim to tackle this exact niche. Unfortunately, official Steam Machines have been postponed to next year - or at least this holiday season, depending how you look at it. In the meantime, you can still have a console-like experience using your PC, and in this article, we'll talk about how to do so.
Continue reading So You Want To Set Up A Steam Box
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Posted on Aug 19th 2014 at 04:00:00 AM by ( noiseredux) Posted under PC |
Question: what the heck is going on with sports games? I mean, if you're a console gamer, then they're considered over-abundant to the point of being cast off as nearly disposable. Each iteration of each individual series is being released annually so that the supply is so ridiculously high that eBay sellers of console lots need warn prospective buyers "L@@K! NO SPORTS GAMES!!!!" And yet PC gamers - the so-called "master race" seem to be struggling to find recent installments at all in some cases.
Continue reading The State of PC Sports Games, 2014
A couple years back I started blogging heavily here about my experiences collecting (and playing) Dreamcast games. But over time my focus would shift back and forth from Dreamcast to other stuff. The shifting tended to dilute what I envisioned in my mind as the proper way to display my DC collecting. Which is why earlier this month I decided to launch my own site called appropriately enough "noiseredux vs. Dreamcast."
The main reason was that I didn't want to keep this NRvsDC thing going as a blog... I don't really like that format for such an endeavor. I like organization that can only be accomplished via an actual site rather than a blog.
You can head over to http://noiseredux.weebly.com to see what I'm talking about.
The new NRvDC site offers up my write-ups (including ones I've migrated from my blog here) on Dreamcast and Neo Geo Pocket games as I explore my own collection. It's important to note that I don't really consider these "reviews." They're generally more anecdotal. Or rambling even. Consider it just a collector's journal. It also has its own blog that I'll use for chronicling my pick-ups.
As far as my blog here - I'll most likely use it for more scattered thoughts. It's not like I'm abandoning RFGen, but this noiseredux vs. Dreamcast site is just really the way I've always envisioned the presentation.
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Posted on Dec 29th 2013 at 04:04:31 PM by ( noiseredux) Posted under List |
What a crazy year it was for me and gaming! After buying our house, I decided to scale back the obsessive Sega collecting, eventually branched out to PC gaming and found that the 3DS is my favorite portable in a long time. So with all this in mind, let's take a look at my Favorite Games of 2013:
1. XCOM: Enemy Within
Some of you (or at least one of you) might consider it lame to award an expansion for a 2012 game (Enemy Unknown) with my 2013 GOTY. But as my list is based solely on how much enjoyment I got out of 2013 releases, it would be an outright lie for me to not give Enemy Unknown this title. Moreover, Enemy Within is so much more than just some new maps and missions. It is an entirely new experience encompassing new maps, enemies, weapons, upgrades - and perhaps most import - mechanics. Indeed the additions of Bio- or Mecha- research for your own troops strips your squad of their earthly limitations while new human EXALT enemies pose a different kind of threat than EU had delivered. Add to this new covert missions and base defense missions which further add variety to even the sorts of missions you might encounter. Not to mention the addition of MELD which virtually turns the “slow and safe” approach to taking turns on its head and instead pushes you to march ahead with oftentimes poorly judged urgency. In a sense, calling Enemy Within “just an expansion” is doing it a huge injustice. It is far closer to an entirely new game built on EU’s engine than just a batch of DLC to expand upon the original, and I’d urge anyone who played Unknown to be sure they’ve experienced Within.
2. Bioshock Infinite
Now here’s a game that really took me by surprise. Bioshock Infinite was a game that I decided to play solely based on how pretty I thought it looked. And other than the prettiness of screenshots, I mostly went into it knowing nothing. A dozen hours later I walked away with an emotional experience on par with some of my favorite games of recent years like Shadow of the Colossus and Heavy Rain. Infinite is a staggeringly gorgeous game that incorporates various bits of history, theology, literature, architecture and much else as bits and pieces weaved together like a fever dream. That the FPS mechanics are so strong certainly propels everything else forward effortlessly. Add to this that the majority of the game is pretty much an escort mission, but one done so well that it begs the question “who was escorting who?”
3. Zelda: A Link Between Worlds
As an adult have you ever gone back to your elementary school’s playground? That’s pretty much A Link Between Worlds. For those of us in a certain age bracket, Link To The Past pretty much remains the pinnacle of gaming. It’s that 16-bit Hyrule that I know the best, because that was the last time I spent so much time exploring every last nook and cranny of a game world. I can vividly remember staying up to ridiculous hours every weekend as I made my way through A Link To The Past, spending hours on stupid things like archery mini-games and feeling like that world was so vast, it could never possibly end. The idea of a sequel to my favorite game of all time was certainly something I felt optimistically nervous about. But it’s within that first hour that it all comes rushing back - the overworld, the music, the weapons and faces both friend and foe. There’s so much familiarity and yet you know you’re playing an all new adventure. And though I haven’t beaten it yet (as I just got it for Christmas), I’m thrilled to be re-visiting my youth in such an exciting way.
4. Tomb Raider
Before the Crystal Dynamics ‘reboot’ of Tomb Raider, I considered myself a casual fan of the series. Starting with my exposure to the first game on PS1, I had always just cherry-picked certain games throughout the series to pay any attention to. Often I’d like the games. But that’s as far as it went. I liked them. They would keep me interested for a while. Then I’d move on to something else. But the 2013 Tomb Raider delivered to me the game that I had always wanted TR to be. It’s something bold, exciting and even a bit scary at times. From the opening hour of having Lara kill a deer to eat, to the next hour where she must kill a man to prevent her own demise, the game is a non-stop thrillride that kept my heart pumping and my eyes impressed by the ridiculously detailed environments. And while it was a prequel, Crystal Dynamics was able to successfully show us the heck that Lara had to go through before becoming the total badass she would soon become. Although by the end of the game she’s all guns-a-blazin’ she also spends a dozen or so hours looking like girl who just barely survives to the last reel of a slasher film. If any of you with even a passing interest in the franchise missed this one, go ahead and rectify that. Chances are you’ll end up looking further into the other Crystal Dynamics-developed titles in the series as well.
5. Shin Megami Tensei IV
When SMT IV was first released there was a lot of hubbub about it costing $10 more than most 3DS games. Yet one look at the wonderful artbook/strategy guide, soundtrack and box containing it all seemed to instantly justify the extra premium. In truth this was a game so awesome it demanded attention in a way that no puny 3DS game case could pull off. And in fairness that strategy guide really did come in handy! SMT IV was no joke. Sure, it offered up the option to drop its difficulty down to an easier setting - but this was only after you had been demeaned by Charon, the ferryman at the River Styx. While SMT IV was one of those RPG’s that just seemed to get everything right. The music, the animation, the settings, the demons, the conversations with the demons, the story, the difficulty, the morality, the weight of your decisions, and most importantly the ridiculously fun battle system.
6. Fire Emblem: Awakening
There’s something to be said for the ‘if it ain’t broke” philosophy of Awakening. Perhaps it’s because handheld consoles seem so inviting for retro throwbacks, but what makes this new Fire Emblem great is the minimal additions of unnecessary bells & whistles. Oh sure there’s a story, though the cut-scenes of footless squads are all skippable. Admittedly, they’re also really great and you probably won’t bother doing so. And sure there’s a deep as heck system of leveling your characters, pairing them up and even spawning babies to go on and kill for you. But at its heart Awakening does best what all the best Fire Emblem games do best - it offers you the ability to recruit soldiers, get attached to them, and then feel awful when you allow them murdered. While the game offers you a more casual mode of play where you’re troops aren’t permanently killed off after a battle, it’s the Classic Mode that makes this game so compelling. It’s the perfect portable strategy game. One where you might spend months on a single battle - picking it up and failing after 20 minutes, throwing the 3DS aside until your next small chunk of downtime.
7. Alien: Colonial Marines
Snicker if you want, but I’m just keeping it real. Although I am a fan of the Alien franchise, it was the overwhelmingly poor reviews of Colonial Marines that made this one a must-play for me. And while I expected a “so bad it’s good” experience, instead I just got a “hey this is a hell of a lot of fun” experience instead. There’s nothing ground-breaking here. In fact there’s really nothing exceptional. Although there are brief moments of almost-brilliance - hinting, I suppose, that a far better game was possible. But none of that ultimately matters. What matters with games - and any form of entertainment for that matter - is that it entertains you. And I can honestly say I was fully entertained for the whole of the single player campaign. And yeah, I’m looking forward to Alien: Isolation.
8. Sturmwind
The novelty of new games appearing on old consoles is always fun. But as is the nature of novelty, it can also soon wear off. What makes Sturmwind so special is that it’s not just a great shoot-em-up, it also pushes the Dreamcast to the absolute threshold of its capabilities and proves that to a certain degree this failed hardware from 1999 could still make brilliant 2D arcade games worthy of competing with the current generation. The appearance of Sturmwind is incredible - and viewed through the DC’s VGA output rivals any indie shmup released this year on more competent technology. The art-direction itself is fantastic, with brightly colored bullets, insanely detailed backgrounds, and memorable boss battles. Even the power-up system was an interesting take on an old formula. Add to this a bevy of extras from online leaderboards, to unlockable ‘achievements’ and even the capability to save replays to a 3rd party SD card adapter and you’ve got a serious argument that the true death-year of the Dreamcast is still anyone’s guess.
9. The Typing of the Dead: Overkill
Speaking of Sega hardware, if there was a Dreamcast 2 it would certainly be home to Typing of the Dead: Overkill. This was a pleasant surprise that popped up on the Steam Store on Halloween week. Much like how the original Typing of the Dead took House of the Dead 2 and mashed it up with a typing tutor, Overkill has HOTD: Overkill re-imagined via Mavis Beacon. The fact that Sega gave us a sequel to the cult-classic completely out of the blue is awesome enough, but the addition of online co-op and the stream of DLC that they’ve been releasing since October (some of it free, even) is an even better gift to longtime Sega fans. Next time you think that Sega is a horrible beast that is dead-set on destroying any lingering love you had for the Sonic series, try to remember that they’re all still a little crazy in an awesome way as made evident with TOTD: Overkill.
10. Castlevania: Mirror of Fate
Here’s one I was a little nervous about. The GBA and DS Castlevania games have had a long history of sticking to the 2D Symphony of the Night style, so hearing about a sequel to a 3D Castlevania game coming to a portable that’s pushing the angle of its 3D capabilities sounded like bad news. But what we got was a really cool 2.5D adventure that I think probably went fairly overlooked this year. The series had gone in a similar direction on the PSP remake of Rondo of Blood. However that was a true 2D classic that had been retrofitted into a 2.5D mold. As such, it suffered. Mirror of Fate fares far better. The controls are great, the level-structure is fun to explore and the boss battles are brutally punishing making for a challenging experience for series fanatics.
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Posted on Oct 17th 2013 at 06:49:36 PM by ( noiseredux) Posted under PC |
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
2K Games, PC (2012)
If you’re one of the handful of folks who actually read my blog you might be saying to yourself “wait a minute… you already wrote about this game.” And you’d be right. I wrote about the Xbox 360 version a couple months back, but a lot has changed since then. You see I had found myself in a position where I needed a new PC. And once I realized the new PC was able to run some new computer games, I started spending a lot of time (and money) on Steam. Thanks to a particularly handsome sale which got me Enemy Unknown along with five of its predecessors for less than I paid for the 360 version alone, I found myself once again heading a team of troops in an effort to rid the earth of an alien takeover.
On my seventh attempt at starting a campaign, I finally saw Enemy Unknown to the end. And as great a feeling as that was, there was actually an even bigger milestone here. When I had tallied up the time spent on both versions of the game, I realized I had put in 105 hours. There’s no way for me to go back and add up all the time I’ve spent on something like say Street Fighter II over the years, but this is the first time I’ve knowingly spent triple-digit hours on a single game. Certainly in such a small window of time - about four months.
So what would drive someone with such a poor attention-span to devote so much time to a single game? The obvious answer is obvious. Enemy Unknown is truly one of the most unabashedly fun games I’ve played in a long time. The battle system is just so riveting, it was easy to spend an hour or more on a Mission and still feel that “just one more before bed” feeling when it was over. But there’s also a lot more to it than just this basic answer.
The story (aka: something I normally don’t care all that much about in a strategy game) was great fun. The alien-invasion/paranoia vibe and pulp-inspired dialogue between missions really kept me interested. The music was phenomenal and I truly hope we see a soundtrack release. But what ultimately sucked me in the most was the progression. That is, even after 20, 30, 40 hours of gameplay I was finding myself still learning much of the finer nuances of Enemy Unknown. It felt like each new start-up would find me better prepared for a campaign. And once I had wrapped my head around base management (get those satellites up ASAP!) and managing terror levels, I started to feel in much greater control.
I suppose it’s also slightly tough to talk about this game without mentioning the emotional attachments you get to each soldier. This is an element that FireAxis implemented perfectly. To use it to greater effect, I named each new hire after a friend. This made it so much easier to keep track of who everyone was. Instead of having to to try to keep track of which snipers had climbed the ranks, I could easily recall that MrPopo and Fastbilly were my stars because I had that association in my mind.
I’d also like to mention that I really did enjoy the PC port of this game. Although having played it on consoles, I can tell you that they’re not miles apart. I did encounter some slight late-game bugs on PC, which I have no idea if they were present on 360 or not. But I enjoyed the convenience of having the quick-link to the Steam forums right from the launcher, and more importantly the screenshot feature. I can tell you that I spent lots of time madly tapping F12 throughout my playthrough. In fact all the pictures in this very blog post were taken in-game by me personally.
I’m quite certain my last post regarding Enemy Unknown was a glowing one. But after all this time with it I can now proclaim quite positively that this game would rank within my Top 5 games of this entire generation. A bold statement for sure. But even after 100+ hours, I’m looking forward to the Enemy Within expansion that is just around the corner.
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Posted on Sep 21st 2013 at 01:52:33 PM by ( noiseredux) Posted under 3DS |
Shin Megami Tensei IV
Atlus, 2013 (3DS)
Multiple endings in games aren’t really so uncommon these days. And to be honest, I’ve never been much of a completionist when it comes to my games. And I’ve definitely never cared for the notion of a so-called “good ending.” In my mind whatever ending you get by playing the game the way that you play it - making the decisions that you want to make, and acting or reacting as you see fit - is your ending. Thus, the most fitting ending for you. I’ve never understood the concept of checking a walkthrough to make sure you do things in a certain order, or say the proper thing to the proper NPC to secure a specific ending. To me, that takes a lot of the interactivity out of the game. Why not just watch a movie or read a book instead?
I tell you this because so much of Shin Megami Tensei IV’s story will be based on your actions. Not only will you be presented with important, story-defining decisions, but you will also have to at times side with your companions. And speaking of your companions, you will spend much of the game traversing with Jonathan (good cop), Walter (bad cop) and Isabeau. And now might be good time to remind you that if you continue reading further you should be well-warned that spoilers are going to start flying soon. Whereas Jonathan and Walter pretty clearly stand as the little Angel and Devil on your shoulders, Isabeau is a little more complex. And more often than not, she was the one who I identified most closely with. I suppose she’d be the neutral character, but it seemed more uncertainty than apathy in most cases.
But y’know what? Before I get too deep into the story, let me at least tell you a bit about the game itself. Shin Megami Tensei IV is (kind of) the fourth entry in the long-running and crazily branched-out MegaTen series of games. Although not gaining much notoriety in the States until the surprise cult-success of the Persona series (another MT spin-off), these games all share a similar thread. Perhaps a basic way to describe them would be really dark versions of Pokemon games (though MT came first). Instead of “pocket monsters,” the MetaTen games strongly feature demons. Demons need to be recruited into your party, which can be both a fun and annoying prospect. Trying to convince a demon to join you can often be a head-game that results in loss of items, loss of stats, loss of other demons and ultimately the demon will refuse to join you. Sometimes the demon will refuse to join you and then attempt to kill you as well.
But like the rest of the games in the series, Shin Megami IV is not meant to be any sort of cakewalk. In fact, the game is so brutal at points (hello, Medusa) that not only is an Easy Mode available to you - it’s in fact part of the story. This is definitely the sort of dungeon-crawler with its roots in a RPG-landscape of yesteryear. One that features a soul-crushing difficulty (even at times if you opt for the previously mentioned Easy Mode). But it’s also got an amazingly well refined and, dare I say it? - FUN battle system.
Battling demons in Shin Megami Tensei IV is all about taking advantage of weaknesses. By knowing what attacks can be exploited against an enemy, suddenly you control the board and you’ll watch your enemy stand there in a daze. It’s really quite rewarding - especially after you’ve spent hours being brutalized by the likes of the Minotaur or Medusa.
The demons look awesome by the way. Indeed SMT IV follows a long tradition of wonderfully detailed (and slightly NSFW) artwork. And although the 3D effect in the game was often used quite well, I can’t say that I kept it on much longer than a few moments - just long enough to conclude “oh this looks cool,” and then turning it back off. The music is dark, dissonant and moody as hell. I’m certainly glad that I bothered to grab the LE box for the included soundtrack when I had the chance. (The other inclusion being a partial strategy guide, which is really quite useful so I’d suggest seeking out this edition while you still can).
Getting back a bit to the story (and again, the spoilers) I mentioned earlier, I have to confess that I spent 35 hours on SMT IV and that resulted in the so-called “bad ending.” An ending where the somewhat confusing story comes to a very abrupt end. Where instead of leaning towards good or evil and getting one of those clear-cut endings, I simply decided to end the world. You might argue that such an ending is anticlimactic. That it almost defeats the purpose of having these alignments. Yet in the days after playing I continued to think about the game, about all the fun I had. It haunted me. And then I realized that in a sense my ending fit my playthrough so perfectly. Where I had spent so much time identifying with Isabeau’s character. I was never quite neutral. I was always more apathetic. It’s as if the entire playthrough was guided by a hopelessness. And so the world had to end.
I just hope that doesn’t mean that Shin Megami Tensei V is out of the question.
The Orange Box
Valve Corporation, 2007
Xbox 360
I was pretty late to the party as far as ‘modern’ First Person Shooters go. I think this had to do with the fact that the rise of Halo and similar games seemed to happen during a time when I was paying a lot less attention to gaming. However once I did finally get exposed to Half-Life a year or so ago, I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed it. A few months back I played through Half-Life in its entirety for the first time ever and that only led me to start delving deeper into more of Valve’s output. So what better place to do that than The Orange Box - a single disc with three full games as well as two add-on episodes?
The first game I decided to play was Portal. Although I had started it (and enjoyed it immensely) a year or two ago, I had never managed to finish it. So I figured I’d just start it over again from scratch. Although I knew the good old ‘cake’ meme, what I didn’t know was how long the game was. This created a really cool experience, always wondering how close I was to the end. And although it only took me two sittings to play through, I had an absolute blast.
I’ve just realized that I’m writing this with the assumption that everybody in the world got around to playing Portal before I did. Just in case that’s not the case, you should know that Portal is basically an FPS without the ‘S.’ Or to be more accurate, the shooting you do is not a gun filled with bullets that are taking out aliens, zombies and soldiers. Instead you’ve got the ingenius Portal-gun which shoots - you guessed it - portals. Enter one and exit there other. Simple, right?
This is the sort of game that offers up puzzles that you might breeze right through, or then sit there for fifteen minutes trying to make sense of everything and then feel like the smartest person alive for doing so. It’s also full of hilarious personality. And although deaths can happen in Portal, for the most part it’s a first person game with very little action. It’s a game that encourages you to move around slowly and explore and think. And although it’s a short game, I can honestly say that the last level alone is just as much fun as everything leading up to it.
Arguably, the star of The Orange Box would be Half-Life 2 which is included here with its Episode 1 and 2 expansions as well. This was my first experience with the game. The original Half-Life I had played a year or so ago for the first time, and only actually beat it earlier this year. But in that time I grew to really love the game, and consider it one of my favorite FPS games of all time. With that in mind, I was certainly looking forward to playing the sequel.
I’ve yet to actually beat Half-Life 2 (which means I’ve also not played the expansions yet either), but the solid time I have spent with it has been great. I will say however that I’m not yet convinced that I like it better than the first game. Although HL2 definitely improves upon its predecessor in many ways, it’s also hard for me to shake the excitement of experiencing the world of Black Mesa for the first time. I also think I lean towards liking the claustrophobia of the research facility more than the more open-world given to you in the sequel. I’ve also noticed that Half-Life 2 feels a lot more “survival horror” than the first game. Ammo seems a bit more limited here for instance.
But all that aside, Half-Life 2 is an incredible game as I said. It looks glorious and runs smooth on the 360. And of course this is just personal preference, but the 360 pad is definitely now my preferred way of playing FPS games. Sorry keyboard & mouse purists. One thing that really stands out in the second game is the writing. The characters definitely have a lot more personality than in the first game. Oh, and the barnacles still creep me out.
Interestingly enough I had recently started playing Halo for the first time ever (seriously). And one thing that really stuck out to me about Halo was just how bad the driving sections were. I just could not grasp them and constantly found myself crashing when I should have been cruising. As it happens I hit the driving (a boat) part of Half-Life 2 around the same time and it was night and day compared to Halo. Thankfully the driving section there was actually really fun, even if a bit longer than need be.
One addition to the sequel that’s really nice is the Gravity Gun. This thing lets you pick up and shoot objects that would otherwise be far too heavy or too far away for you to do so. In that regard, Valve successfully incorporated puzzles into a true FPS similar to what would be come the standalone game of Portal. It definitely makes you think about how to approach certain sections. For instance in one area I was low on bullets, but there were saw blades all over the place stuck in walls. Turns out you can suck up a saw blade with the Gravity Gun and send it violently shredding through a zombie (these are zombies, right?).
As a bit of a diversion I figured I should at least see what this Team Fortress 2 game was all about. So I hopped on the XBLA server one weekend morning and to my surprise, there were several games going on. What started as a simple capture-the-flag game with a red team and a blue team quickly turned into a pretty decent time-suck. A half hour or so later I realized the appeal to such a game. And now that I was feeling at least somewhat comfortable controlling an FPS, I could even enjoy such a game! Of course I was only playing with strangers, and I’m sure that a much bigger bit of enjoyment would come from playing with a group of friends. Something I’ll have to look into in the future.
And speaking of the future - not only does this mean that The Orange Box has this online game that I can enjoy indefinitely (or until the servers are shut down), but I’ve still got Half-Life 2 to beat and the expansion episodes to delve into. When you look at the number of quality hours of gaming that are on this single disc, it becomes quickly apparent that The Orange Box is one of the finest compilations you get on the 360.
Activision Anthology
2002, Activision
PlayStation 2
Remember when you were a kid and you’d wake up early Saturday mornings for cereal and cartoons while your parents slept? I’ve developed a similar habit recently. There’s something about coffee and old 2600 games that really goes well with the weekend.
I personally have a very soft spot for the Atari VCS, as it was the first real console I owned (unless you count a C64 and small stack of edutainment titles). I acquired my VCS in the mid-80’s along with a big box of second-hand games. And although my household would have a NES not long after, it was those Atari games that seemed to really define gaming for me early on.
Sadly, my console and games are long lost to time. I honestly have no idea what ever became of them. Yard sale most likely, as my mom moved several times since I moved out of her house. I did eventually pick up another heavy-sixer at a yard sale a couple of years back, but ultimately decided to flip it as we were living in a small-ish apartment and didn’t have the room to keep it hooked up, nevermind start another collection of games. Because of all this you can probably understand my fondness for these sorts of Atari collections. Without taking up much shelf space, I’ve got access to lots of 2600 games thanks to Activision Anthology (and a few other similar compilations). But Activision Anthology in particular really nails the potential for such reissues. No matter your take on retro compilations, there’s a lot to admire here. So let’s take a look a bit at what Activision Anthology does right.
Presentation is of course a big deal to a compilation such as this. By the time the PS2 came along, emulators were mainstream. That meant that just dumping a folder of a ROM’s on a retail disc wasn’t going to impress anyone (although that still hasn’t entirely stopped some publishers from doing just that). But Activision went above and beyond with their Anthology. Rather than just a menu, you’re greeted by a virtual bedroom. Here you can choose your cartridge from a phsyical stack (you can also examine the box art or read the manual for each game), you can view your collection of patches (basically achievements modeled after the actual patches you could get from Activision back in the day) and you can choose your music.
Oh that’s right - the music! Certainly you can choose to just listen to the original game sound effects if you so choose, but your room also has a boombox. And as such, Activision went ahead and licensed a dozen or so popular songs from the period to sort of put you in the context a bit more. Meaning, you can feel like you were back in the 80’s listening to your stereo while you play your VCS. It’s really a pretty brilliant idea that I wish more compilations featured. And as I said, it’s also optional. You can adjust the volumes for the games and soundtrack as you wish which is also a welcome flexibility, as you're never “stuck” with one or the other.
It may also be obvious, but thankfully Activision Anthology keeps high scores for your games. I say thankfully because it’s shocking how many retro compilations are released that don’t have this very simple (and highly desirable) feature.
If all this weren’t proof enough of the labor of love that is Activision Anthology, I should also mention the myriad unlockables. By reaching various achievements within all the cartridges you will unlock all kinds of interesting extras including developer interviews and original TV commercials for the games. These visual extras are excellent bonuses for video game history buffs and are definitely motivation to keep playing games just to unlock more.
So there you have it... except we haven’t even talked about the most important part of this collection: the games! Nearly fifty games are included here including a handful of homebrew titles (which is another stellar addition by Activision). So of that fifty, I’d like to highlight some of the ones I’ve been spending the most time with lately.
Fishing Derby is a unique game where you and an opponent race to see who can catch the most fish. The tricky part is that there’s also a shark swimming around trying to eat the fish that you’re reeling in. And then there’s of course some strategy considering the deeper the fish you catch, the more points they’re worth. I kind of think this game would appeal to me a lot more if I was playing against a human opponent, but the concept and scoring itself is still very impressive.
Surprisingly Ice Hockey has been a favorite that was new to me via this collection. You might think that hockey wouldn’t work well on such primitive hardware, but the programming behind this one is mind-boggling. The game is setup as a two-on-two where each play has a goalie and a skating player. How this works is your goalie and your opponent’s player is on the top half of the screen and vice versa. The puck’s placement vertically on the screen determines if you control the goalie or your player. This might sound confusing, but it’s actually flawless in its execution. It’s really amazing how perfect it works. Add to this that puck-handling, shooting and even hitting your opponent are also extremely intuitive.
Pitfall! is of course a classic - though amazingly one I had not spent much time with until just a couple years ago. I still find the complexity of this one staggering, and certainly can see it as a platforming milestone. Though I must admit, I’ve still never managed to beat it.
And a special shout-out to Demon Attack, another game I only discovered thanks to this anthology. Obviously I’m a big shmup fan, and although I’m a bit picky on early shoot-em-ups, this one is awesome. I love how much variety there is to enemy attacks and behavior. This one should really be played by any shmup fans that have overlooked it.
I should end by saying that even though I’m raving about Activision Anthology, that isn’t to say there aren’t any missteps. There’s actually a few games that originally used a paddle (Kaboom! for instance) that should not even be included here as they’re virtually unplayable with a DualShock. (Side-note: why did nobody release a paddle controller for PS2?) And this isn’t a problem with the set, but why the heck is Tennis so impossible? I mean Activision nailed the AI on a lot of their other competitive games, but I have no idea how you’d ever get a point scored against the computer in Tennis. But nitpicking aside, I can’t really see how any retro fans could go wrong with Activision Anthology. Even if you own every single one of these carts (doubtful considering stuff like Kabobber and Thwocker), all the extras really make the package well worth owning.
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Posted on Jul 25th 2013 at 11:10:53 PM by ( noiseredux) Posted under 3DS |
If held at gunpoint, I'd have to say that Street IV is my favorite game of this generation. Oh sure I've had many far more amazing experiences with games like Heavy Rain or Catherine or 3D Dot Game Heroes. But Street Fighter IV is a game I've constantly come back to. In fact, it was something of a revelation to me upon its release. At a time when I thought that these new fancy pieces of hardware couldn't compare to classic sprites, it was Street Fighter IV that sold me on 'the future.' This is a real forum post I made back in 2010:
So I figured I'd be really excited about Street Fighter IV or the Capcom Vs Namco announcement or the new Marvel Vs Capcom game thats' coming out. But frankly, all the screens I've seen... they just look wrong to me. I mean sure the graphics are pretty or whatever. But the camera angles, the lack of sprites... it just doesn't appeal to me. SFIV just doesn't look like a SF game to me. Is it just me?
And then what happened was this: my wife and I were Christmas shopping that year at the mall and stumbled upon this kiosk. It was set up like an arcade. Just rows and rows of gaming consoles - Wii, PS3 and 360 - all just sitting there to try various games. I had time to kill and saw Street Fighter IV set up on one of the 360's and gave it a go. Within a half-hour my tune had changed. When I finally picked up a PS3 the next year, Super Street Fighter IV was the first game I bought. And in the two years since, it's remained one of the games I've played the most. I've even gone as far as picking up the Arcade Edition (as well as Street Fighter X Tekken) and await Ultra with open-arms.
So when I finally decided it was time to pick up a 3DS this last month, I bundled it with a natural choice - Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition. Indeed, the thought of playing SF4 in bed, on the couch, outside, or anywhere I desire was a huge plus for me. But how would this game fair? I mean, as far as portable Street Fighters go, it had some big shoes to fill. And I say this as a guy who's picked up portable Street Fighters going as far back as Game Boy. That said, Super Street Fighter II: Turbo Revival on GBA is by far one of the high water marks in the portable series. And Alpha 3 on GBA was perhaps even more impressive (though not my favorite of the two) and eventually trumped by its PSP iteration.
As far as I'm concerned the important thing is whether or not a portable game can deliver a console experience to me - at least as far as Street Fighter goes. And friends let me tell you that yes, 3D Edition truly does. Now I'll start by saying this - controls are going to be a factor for any of us fighting game fans. Those of you used to an arcade stick, well you know where you stand. But I've always been a fightpad guy. So the lack of six face-buttons on the 3DS hardware is of course going to throw me off. So in fairness, that's the one downfall to me here. I had to kind of relearn how to use shoulder buttons in a Street Fighter game - something I haven't had to bother with since Turbo Revival.
But at the end of the day 3D Edition gives you everything you could want on the go. The visuals are amazing, and truly justify to me that my purchase of this handheld was a wise one. The music that I'm so familiar with is here and perfect. The controls are fluid once you've gotten a grasp of the button layout. You can use the analog nub or the D-Pad as you desire. There's also some combo's you can select on the lower DS screen via touch - but that's cheating I tell you! Cheating! And perhaps the best addition - I've now finally got a portable Street Fighter game with full online gameplay. Again - I can be in bed, on the couch, outside, where ever - and be playing Street Fighter IV against someone in another state! For this alone, I am grateful and highly recommend this port.
Question: When's the last time you sunk fourteen hours into a game, lost, and felt good about it? That's what just happened to me with XCOM: Enemy Unknown. In this day and age there seems to be a lot of bitter gamers who have various views of game-worth. I remember when my wife got me Lollipop Chainsaw as a gift the clerk told her to keep the receipt. "It's only a six hour game. He might be disappointed." But I've always been happy to take six solid hours of gameplay over twenty boring ones.
I was first introduced to the X-COM series via its second installment, Terror From The Deep. I was about fourteen or so, and my step-dad was working at a big-box electronics store and brought home a promo copy. I was obsessed with this game, but I was terrible at playing it. I doubt I ever made it past the second mission. Truth be told, I may have spent all my time on the first. But it was a blast. Many years later I'd discover a GBA spiritual successor developed by series creator Julian Gallop called Rebelstar: Tactical Command. It was great. But then out of the blue it was announced that X-COM proper would be making a comeback... as a First Person Shooter.
Well as you may know, that hasn't happened. And won't. Instead that game was shelved in favor of a proper Tactical game: Enemy Unknown with The Bureau turned into a Third Person Shooter (sigh) coming out later this year.
Enemy Unknown turned out to be a tremendously brilliant game however. It's basically everything you could want from the series, in high-def, and with excellent controller support. But more than anything else, it brings the drama. Sure your barracks can hold up to 99 soldiers, but your squad can only consist of six. This means lots of leveling-up and growing attached. It's an emotional rollercoaster of a game that I've chronicled in bits as I've played...
I had one of those four-legged bastards that turns dudes to zombies come slink out of a building and land ONE SPACE away from my "team captain." (I call this guy the team captain as he's one of the more leveled-up skill-wise, and probably has the most kills of anyone on my squad right now.) The team-captain had already moved, and so my next character's turn was enough that even if I dashed I still wasn't super close. Instead, I moved just as far as I could while still having the ability to take a shot. 29% guys. 29% that the shot would connect. And there was the decision. Do I take the shot, miss and hope I can get someone else over there before the four-legged bastard's next move? Do I dash as close as I can get to set up a good shot on next round and hope that I can get the team-captain out of harm's way in the meantime? Well dear friends, I took the shot. 29% and it was CRITICAL. Mission ended with that kill, and a sigh of relief.
Let me tell y'all about 'Coney.' For the last 5 hrs or so, Coney has been my star. Her real name is Charlotte, but the squad calls her Coney (presumably as she's from the Coney Island area, though I've never asked). She started out just as nondescript as any of my other soldiers, but quickly rose through the ranks in 5 hrs thanks to her sharp-shooting. Even as snipers go she seemed to have a can't-miss nature about her. A little extra luck that goes above mere statistics.
In the first mission where we encountered these grunt front-line soldier aliens she was caught off guard. She had set up post looking through an open train cargo cart when one of them surprised her and positioned himself a single space away. Apparently he had dashed to get there as he didn't take a shot at her, but she had nobody covering her. I got my closest guy over in her area and he took the best shot he could. It hit, but not hard and the grunt remained standing. Coney's turn was next and she could run, get safe and take the shot - risking that the grunt would go after the soldier who had just defended her. Nah, Coney point-blanked him. Grunt goes down. Mission over.
So imagine my horror when Coney was fragged by a Thin Man during a bomb-deactivation mission. She had been holding down behind a car when he surprised her. Hit her hard and she started bleeding out. Luckily - so luckily - I had a soldier with a medkit close by. I got her over to Coney on the next turn and healed her up, and followed that by parking a third soldier with them behind that car and put him on overwatch to protect them. A sigh of relief as my turn ended and I realized that a close call had happened, but Coney would continue running up her tally of kills.
And that's when the car they were behind blew up. All three of them KIA'd while exhibiting tremendous teamwork. They had done everything right - they just couldn't do it fast enough. The squad will miss Coney. She won't be an easy part of the team to replace.
So the above should stand as back-up to just how sucked-in you really get. Which is all the more reasoning that seeing this screen was so sobering:
Yup. After putting it two or three hours a night for a week, I lost. Seriously, I lost a game. How often does that happen anymore in games? Usually you just start from your last check-point and continue on. And in fairness, I was playing on Normal which meant I could technically start from before my last mission. But it's a lost cause. My base-management skills were terrible. My troops were a joke at this point. Many countries had pulled out of the XCOM project. It was rough. It's reason to start over again. Which is definitely a rather difficult thing to fact, but it's true.
I probably won't do so immediately. Not tonight. But Enemy Unknown is one of the most addictive games in a long time, so I can totally see myself starting over again in the near future. And more importantly, even though I didn't "beat" the game - I have fourteen amazingly enjoyable hours. The journey outweighed the destination. No matter what your outcome may be, I highly recommend you log some hours into this one.
There's been a lot of talk this year about Aliens: Colonial Marines. Like Duke Nukem in 2011, it's been the game to hate. In fact this unanimous disgust for this game was so intense that it only amplified my desire to actually play it. And what I found was a game that was so enjoyable to me, I'm not even sure why I'd need to defend it. But then again I'm going by nothing but base reaction. Meaning I'm looking at this just as 'a game' rather than 'a highly anticipated game based on a license with rabid fans.'
Let me start by pointing out a few things that might make more sense out of my enjoyment for this game. First of we should discuss the First Person Shooter genre. Though I'm slowly learning to enjoy FPS games far more than I ever did in the past, I'm still far from seasoned. I've played very few of the modern staples. So in reality, I don't have all that much to compare this to that's been critically acclaimed (save for perhaps Borderlands).
I should also point out that while I am a huge horror fan, the Alien films have always been a bit closer to sci-fi (mixed with horror) to me. This means that while I am a fan, I'm not an obsessive fan. I don't rush out to see each film. I haven't even seen them all yet. And so the story here - supposedly cannon - really doesn't matter to me as far as how well it gels with the film series.
And lastly, I didn't follow this game's hype leading up to its release. I didn't pay much attention to the overly long production schedule. I didn't see the demos shown prior to release, so had no anticipations. Add to this that while the game was released this year, I didn't pay $60 for it on day-one, but instead picked up for $10 when GameFly was having a sale.
Now that we got those disclaimers out of the way I can start to tell you about my own experience playing. I delved in blindly, and to my surprise I found that the game was actually very linear. Whereas this might turn off other, more-seasoned FPS'ers, it was just fine for me. Earlier this year I played through Half-Life for the very first time. And while I fell deeply in love with that game and everything new it showed me about the genre, it was really nice to now play through a modern FPS where I didn't have to constantly resort to checking a walkthrough to figure out what my next move was.
Graphically, I thought the game looked excellent on 360. It was well detailed, ran smoothly (save for some glitches I'll get to later) and had excellent lighting. Of course I've since watched videos on Youtube comparing some of the demo footage shown before the game's release compared to the finished product, and certainly the final release has been compromised. But that said, the atmosphere always seemed to work really well for me.
As far as the aforementioned glitches, well they were around. As seen above is a screen shot I took on my phone camera. At one point I was being fired upon by turrets and wondering where my cover, O'Neil was. He should have been right behind me, but wasn't. I decided to backtrack a bit and found him two rooms earlier... stuck in a wall.
These NPC AI glitches were by far the ones I encountered the most. Sometimes one of your partners would seemingly forget he was even alive and would just stand frozen doing nothing for five minutes or so. Other times he would shake violently as if hopped up on uppers. At least twice I ran out in front of my squad only to find them suddenly waiting for me two rooms ahead. And once O'Neil even materialized in front of me out of thin air. So yeah, in that sense Colonial Marines feels a lot more like a budget title. And who knows, had it been released as such maybe we'd all think of it more akin to Earth Defense Force and wink-wink-nudge-nudge at these sorts of shortcomings.
But despite all that, I still found the game compelling enough to find time for it consistently over the last two weeks until it was beaten. And there were plenty of moments that really stood out to me. For example there's one section where you must escape from a rather large Xeno and find yourself sneaking around under his floor. At various moments he angrily bursts through your ceiling attempting to grab you, and the scare was effective enough to genuinely make me yell out startled. (My wife later took it upon herself to burst in to the game room screaming to shake me up a second time).
At another point you come across these aliens who can only see movement, so you must stay still when they get to close. And right as I got to an exit three of them came extremely close to me and I swore I was detected. It was actually tense enough of a moment that I caught myself holding my breath in real life.
The truth is that the game's eleven missions were actually quite well peppered with such moments that really made me enjoy every hour of gameplay. Although I'm still baffled at the ball-drop that was the final boss fight against the Queen. I genuinely have no idea why my squad of marines would think it was cool to let me handle her on my own. And I'm further baffled by the decision to make the boss encounter in a room so filled with barricades to keep her away from me, and so obvious as to how to defeat her. It did seem pretty anti-climatic considering how many more difficult sections had come before it.
But at the end of the day I'm glad I played this game. I don't regret purchasing it, and in fact I'm even bummed at the reception it got which would pretty clearly say "no sequels dudes." Considering its sunken price tag, I'd at least suggest some of you out there with some interest and open minds give it a shot. I'm certainly not saying it's the best game out there, but it's certainly not the worst either - no matter what it is you've heard elsewhere.
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Posted on Jul 9th 2013 at 12:44:29 AM by ( noiseredux) Posted under PSP |
If you happened to read my recent blog post about my playthrough of the first Final Fantasy on PSP, then you'd probably know that I was extremely excited to continue on with the second game. Strangely, I got all kinds of warnings from folks. "Just skip that one... trust me" kind of stuff. But I shook it off. I'm the type of gamer that tends to look for what's good in any game I play, and often am able to find enjoyment in plenty of games that others would just rather not waste time on. Surely I could find some fun in Final Fantasy II - especially a great looking remake like this one! Right?
Well I was right about one thing... it does look great. Much like the first remake, Final Fantasy II looks amazing on PSP. These new sprites and backgrounds in widescreen are really breath-taking and I think sort of what we all imagined our SNES RPG's looked like back in the day. Likewise, the re-recorded soundtrack is excellent. Unfortunately that's where most of my kind-words for this game stop.
Many of you are probably already versed in Final Fantasy II and its extremely flawed leveling system. And though I had heard about it beforehand, I don't think I was prepared for how tedious this really made the game. Rather than just leveling up your characters through experience, everything has to be individually leveled. Your weapons, your spells, your Hit Points... everything. You want to be tougher? You need to take a bunch of damage. You want to cast an effective spell? You better cast it a lot.
Of course there's 'workarounds' but they suck. Basically you can do things like constantly beat up your own party on purpose or cast spells and then cancel them before your turn is over. I didn't even bother with any of that. Truth be told, breaking the game truly broke the experience for me altogether. Instead, I attempted to play it straight, and ultimately that just broke my spirit to continue.
After two or three hours of my weak party walking between two towns, I was just about ready to throw in the towel. I figured I'd take a look a guide though. This right here shows the difference between Final Fantasy I and II. For the most part, I never really had issues figuring out how to progress my journey in the first game. But here I was, still in the earliest section of II and was baffled. The guide told me how to get Minwu the White Mage to join my party. So I tried that, and he wouldn't join. I back-read the guide to make sure I had done everything I was supposed to and as far as I could tell I had. I checked another guide, same thing. Tried again and Minwu wasn't having it.
So I shut the game off in disgust. Even if I could figure out what I was doing wrong and got Minwu to join my party at this point, I wouldn't want to. Final Fantasy II seems one of the most poorly executed RPG's I've ever attempted. This coming from a guy who could appreciate the limitations of item-usage in Riviera The Promised Land! I think perhaps if Final Fantasy II could have been remade with a completely re-vamped (and more traditional) leveling-up system, it could be a game worth diving back into. But in its original form it will remain just a curio to me. I think it's time I start looking for Final Fantasy III instead.
Even if you know nothing about it, you probably already know if you'd like Lollipop Chainsaw by looking at its cover. If you can answer a question as simple as "would you enjoy playing the role of a high school cheerleader who must rid her town of zombies with the aid of a chainsaw and her decapitated boyfriend's head?" then you can clearly decide if this game was developed for you or not. And for me it was a no-brainer for a very long time before the cover art had even been released.
Suda51 has certainly become a favorite developer of mine this generation. Though I arrived to the party rather late - though I did play a bit of Killer7 years ago now, it wasn't until the 2011 PlayStation 3 re-release of No More Heroes that I started playing close attention to Goichi Suda and his Grasshopper Manufacture. In fact I've since investigated much more of his work. And though the half-dozen or so Suda games I've played have all been really intriguing, Lollipop Chainsaw is probably my favorite at this point. However instead of just talking about the game itself, I thought I'd talk about its parts. That is to say, while No More Heroes felt like Suda's Kill Bill with its plot and themes; Lollipop Chainsaw is more along the lines of his own original work in the vein of Tarantino's mixtape-approach to creation.
The first piece of the puzzle is James Gunn. Gunn wrote much of the dialogue, and it really shows. For those unfamiliar, Gunn is responsible for fun but morbid films as diverse as Slither, the Scooby-Doo reboot, the Dawn of the Dead remake and perhaps most importantly, Tromeo & Juliet. Yes, although Lollipop Chainsaw had a pretty decent budget there was a definitely a lot of Troma spirit in there. Be it the humor of Juliet (ooh, I just noticed the name!) saying that her friends considered her dad a "DILF," or any number of low-browish jokes that seem to stradle the line between 'fun' and 'offensive.' One of the lines that actually made me laugh out loud was when Nick, the decapitated head looks up at the final boss and says that yesterday he had stubbed his toe and thought to himself 'man, this is the worst day ever.' And (presumably) Gunn's taste in horror and b-movies finds its way into the script as well with references to everything from George Romero and Lucio Fulci in abundance.
Speaking of movies, I think it's safe to assume that there's at least an inkling of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in there. That said, early screens of the game could have certainly worried folks that this would be too much a rip-off of Buffy. Thankfully the game has so much of its own personality that it's also miles away. Sure Juliet is the pretty cheerleader doing all the dirty work, but it's also far more gory and vulgar. In a sense it's a bit like taking the best ideas from Buffy and combining them with the schlock of Oneechanbara and coming up with a game that's better than any game in either of those franchises.
Retro gaming itself is also a strong influence on the final product. In one of the absolute best stretches of the game it becomes overly apparent that this is a game made by folks who grew up loving games. Indeed, Fulci's Arcade will find you hopping from cab to cab playing bits of the level based on classic arcade titles such as Pac-Man, Elevator Action and Breakout. It's an aesthetically incredible section that never falls into the trap of "being retro to be retro," and instead just feels like a very natural part of the gameplay wrapped up in wonderful homage.
And much like a Tarantino movie there's layer upon layer further to be discussed. I could spend time on the wonderful soundtrack mixing new bands I've never heard of with a score by Mindless Self Indulgence and a bevy of interesting licensed material from the classic "Lollipop" or cheerleader-associated "Hey Mickey" or girl-with-edge "Cherry Bomb." It's all so perfect. Or we could get into the No More Heroes-ish fondness for subarban samurai with the introduction of Juliet's sensei. We could wax philosophical about the symbolism of Juliet's boyfriend being reduced to just a head that she carries and controls at all times or the boss battle where misogynistic words are literally a weapon used against Juliet. Hell, we could ponder the design decision of making the final action in the game a simple and unchallenged Quick Time Event.
And perhaps that's what makes Lollipop Chainsaw so great. As brief as it is, and as shallow as it may appear to outsiders, actually experiencing it is exploring a whole world of awesome shit that you want to experience again and discuss with others who have as well. And for that I say bravo.
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