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The Pokemon craze originally hit stateside on September 30th, 1998, with the simultaneous Pokemon Red & Blue Versions releases. It was an instant success worldwide, and the term 'Pokemon' can be heard uttered from the mouths of children and young adults alike, around the world. I had my first experience with Pokemon at the age of 5 during Christmas '98 with Red and Blue versions on a brand new Game Boy Color, my first system of any kind. At that age, my reading skills were good enough so that I understood a large part of the game, but it wasn't until Christmas 2000 that I really got into the Pokemon craze.
On that Christmas 2000, I received Pokemon Gold and Silver. Being 7, I got everything, and boy, was I hooked. For some reason, my attention was drawn to the golden color of Gold rather than Silver first. It was the game I put in first, and the game that I finished first, and the game that I logged the most time in. I may not have even beaten Red in Silver, I will never know. Sometime in mid 2004/5, I lost nearly all of my games, and it wasn't until Monday of last week that I got a copy of Gold again. It was like being back with an old friend.
The Gold/Silver world is interesting in that you are given 100 new Pokemon to catch, new moves, new gyms, and of course, a new storyline. What was also neat was the fact that after you beat the Elite Four, the game still continues for 8 more Gyms! That's right! 16 Gyms, 1 Elite Four, and then Red, the hardest Challenger in the game. While the current speed-run time is 4 hours, 15 minutes from start to end, I know that it took me upwards of 50 hours to finally get to Red and beat him.
Now, to the Nitty Gritty of it all; the review:
The Learning Curve:
Well, it is difficult to say that ther is a learning curve at all. Pokemon games follow a very structured path of 'Get the Badges, Beat the Elite Four, and Catch 'em All!', but how you do that can be affected by many variables. Some battles in this game can be considerably hard, while others, mediocre at best. A 5 out of 5 is merited because anyone can really pick up this game and play. 5/5
 Gameplay and Story:
This game has a very lush storyline, which does redeem it from the fact that it is Pokemon: battles tend to get repetitive, especially random encounters. If you have a goal set, and it takes forever to reach it because of pesky Pidgeies, then you do have the urge to just shut the game off. This is a big aspect of all Pokemon games, but it can be remedied with a Repel or Super Repel. 4.5/5
Replay Value:
It is difficult to say why, but Pokemon games are such in that when you restart them (at least for me), you have just as much fun playing them as you did the first time. The story doesn't change, but how you go about achieving your goals can vary greatly, changing the game up, giving a new experience. 5/5
Music:
I love the music in this game. It has old, familiar tunes that have been revamped and made better to fit to the Game Boy Color's improved audio capabilities. I just can't get the 'Team Rocket' theme out of my head!!! 5/5
In conclusion, if you are a Pokemon fan, or are new to the franchise, or even want to try a Pokemon game, Gold Version is a great place to start. It earns a:
19.5/20 or 97.5%
It misses perfect by the fact that repetitive random encounters can tend to be annoying. Happy Gaming!
[IMG align=right]http://i618.photobucket.com/albums/tt270/Austinw80/GuitarHeroMetallica-WiiBoxArt.jpg[/img]
Well, the latest in the Guitar Hero series, Guitar Hero Metallica, is a god-send for both Guitar Hero and Metallica fans alike. I am talking here about the Wii version, which may not look as good as the 360 or PS3 versions, but is still a good enough version.
Difficulty
Just as with any Guitar Hero/Rock Band game, the difficulty increases with each level. However, Guitar Hero Metallica, just like World Tour, has an extremely easy, beginner level. This beginner level has no notes, and is basically for those who have just started playing and need to get used to strumming on the guitar controller. If you play the games as a drummer, and want to really prove how skilled you are at the drums, you can go one step beyond the hardest difficulty. You can change the drum difficulty to Expert+, which has you add an extra kick pedal to get the experience of using a double bass drum setup, just like Lars Ulrich. 5/5
Gameplay
The game plays just as you'd expect a Guitar Hero game to play. The game is set up, however, just like Guitar Hero World Tour, from the Rock Star/instrument creator down to the neck slider notes. Also, whenever you play a Metallica song, you actually get a chance to play as Kirk Hammett, Robert Trujillo, Lars Ulrich, or James Hetfield, depending on what position you are playing in the band. I am impressed by the number of guitars that are in the game, which as many of you know are actually axes used by Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield. There are also drums used by Lars Ulrich, and Basses used by Robert Trujillo. The gameplay has a completely different energy simply because it is music by Metallica, as well as other bands such as Motorhead, Mastodon, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Mercyful Fate, etc. 5/5
Graphics
The Wii surprisingly can present Guitar Hero Metallica very well, considering it is not as graphically powerful as the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3. The characters look decent enough, except for certain features, such as wrinkles, are not as detailed. Also, I've noticed that whenever you play a Metallica song, the hair on Robert Trujillo and Kirk Hammett do not move when they move. The same is true for all long haired characters in the game. This goes for such as Axel Steel, Clive Winston, and Marcus Fretshredder. Other than that, the graphics are decent enough to be thoroughly enjoyed.4/5
Sound/Music
This department is where Guitar Hero and Rock Band games shine the brightest. I have played both the 360 and Wii versions of this game, and I have heard no audio differences between the two. The large list of Metallica songs, as well as the other artists' songs, sound very high quality,and as i said earlier, I have heard no audio differences between the different versions.5/5
Even for a system as low-powered as the Nintendo Wii, Guitar Hero Metallica is presented very well. I am impressed by the graphics, despite the fact that they are not as smooth as the PS3 or 360.
Final Score:19/20=95%
OK I went to the Car Boot again, bringing 7.05 with me and coming back with 35p, 6 Mega Drive games, an unnamed Game Adapter (which I discovered is just a Pass Through device for region free Japanese games I believe) and 1 PC game.
I think out of all the games, the luckiest one was finding Phantasy Star IV and Soleil both for 1!!
Now to show you my updated shelf, fully labelled.
[img width=700 height=478]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2428/3581481057_2d035868fb_o.jpg[/img]
As stated in the blog description, I have been collecting Mega CD games since September 08, therefore in three months it will be one year of collecting. I think my target for then is to fill up one Mega CD section of the shelf. That would make me happy 
OK so until next time!
Hey people, another game has been brought to my collection meaning I have now got 31 games out of 213...or 211, I'm not fully sure which. Continue reading as I show new games to my collection and my Promo video has arrived!
Continue reading Mega CD Collection update
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Posted on May 30th 2009 at 06:08:35 AM by ( Nionel) Posted under PS2 |
The Playstation 2 is the best selling video game console in history, with sales exceeding over 136 million units by the end of 2008 it also sports a library of nearly 2,000 games, it is the only last generation console that continues to see any sort of support or game releases. The console is in it's ninth year on the market and still continues to sell strong despite the release of newer consoles like the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. At this point in the console's life, you might think you'd be hard pressed to find a gamer that hasn't owned one at some point in the last nine years, but it might surprise you to know that I've missed out on a majority of the console's life.
Continue reading Lost Generation: Sony Playstation 2
As those in the chat know, because of my living arrangements, I have my games stored in two different locations: my current house and my in-laws, where we lived previously. My collection at my house had grown to nearly 1000 games and it was starting to bug me that I had no solid idea of exactly what else I had. So, that's what I spent my night doing last night.
I made my way over around 5:00pm and set up the router, then headed downstairs and started plugging away. Things started rather slowly as I began with my containers full of mostly hardware. As those slowly transitioned to containing more and more games, my collection began growing online at a much quicker pace. This is SO much better than IGN. I ended up finding a stopping point roughly 10 shy of 1300 with many boxes to go. But that's not what this is about.
As I was entering stuff, I was finding myself saying, "I didn't know I had this" or " I forgot about that one." I was rediscovering my collection. I really had no idea just how much stuff I had amassed in a relatively small period of time. Along those lines, I had no idea how much hardware I really had. Some obscure, some not-so-obscure, but all there. Lots of joysticks, controllers, and just plain cables.
As for the games, I found some that I forgot I had, but I apparently forgot just how many times I had bought a game. How many copies of Aladdin for Genesis does one person need? I found manuals I didn't know I had for games I'm sure I don't have. With maybe half of my stuff from my in-laws online now, I still have a little way to go. I had originally estimated 300-400 games/systems/accessories over there. With nearly 300 being put in last night alone, I have to think that I had guessed about half of what I had there. Soon, I'll know for sure.
DISCLAIMER: I've already published this on my personal blog, but I thought it might find an interested audience here.
Some time ago I had the notion of hacking a PS1 joypad and a Dragon 32 joystick into some sort of hybrid that might work for an emulator. I love playing games on the Dragon, but it's a bit of a bind loading tapes all the time and I'm not sure how long the hardware will last if I keep using it.
This is the results of that idea.
(And when I can figure out the difference between Blogger's html and RFGen's I'll get rid of the space below this paragraph)
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Removed the circuit boards from the PSX pad, a Woolworths branded knock off. Using a Dremmel I cut out the section of the pad that holds the right nubbin. |
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Removed the potentiometer from the Dragon joystick, and unsoldered the connections to the fire button. This button will directly activate the PSX pad circuit board. No damage to the controller, so I can always return the controller to it's pre-modded state. These things may not have a soul, but I do. |
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I tidied up the nubbin casing, and glued it into the Dragon joystick case. This will give me a secure mounting point for the actual analog control later. Sawed the nubbin circuit board in two, one to fit inside0 the Dragon joystick, the other to be hidden away in a project box. |
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I've got tons of old pc cables lying around, so I cut up an old RS232 cable, and salvaged a com port from my parts bin. I soldered the cable to the joystick end, and the com port to the main PSX circuit board. After testing all the connections for continuity I plugged it all together, retested and found that I'd swapped the connections between the plug and the socket, so I had to redo the socket end. Once I'd done that and retested it everything looked ok, so it was time for a test on the emulator.
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Bugger me, it all worked! Ok, so it wasn't rocket science, but this is my first project in about 20 years, and I did expect some major problems along the way. I've still to add a proper joystick to the controller instead of the nubbin, but this is how it looks so far |
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I've managed to get my boards into a project box now, and wire up the analogue on/off switch. This was all built from parts I had lying around, and whilst the box is a bit on the big side it does mean that I can add another board and sockets and have 2 joysticks. Or add an interface for something else.
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Not much else done, but I've cleaned up the box and added some authentic early 80's style labels
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Posted on May 27th 2009 at 06:36:29 AM by ( Karatekamaster) Posted under High Scores, Yars,Revenge,Atari,2600,Mission,Log,Back,Of,Instruction,Manual |
Just recently I got my first complete copy of Yars' Revenge and I got a new high score. After looking in the back, I found a Mission Log, otherwise known as a Hi-Scores place. Nothing had been written here from the previous owners and maybe just one entry would revive life back into the instruction manual. As I pick up the pen, something unexpected happens...
I found that I couldn't write in the Mission Log. Was there some magical power stopping me in my quest to put my first hi-score in there? Indeed there was, it was the... ATARI POWER! As you flip through the pages of the Yars' Revenge Manual, you start to feel the colorful charm the manual has. The Atari Power is gained by just reading a little bit about the game in the manual and it had taken me by storm.
Although, I was determined to beat the Atari Power, I lost in an unfortunate battle. I picked up the pen, a blue Papermate pen with a grip, and started in towards battle. The orange box with the classic Atari lettering had captured my eyes and made it difficult to focus on the target. I had started to feel the guilt once I put the tiniest dot on the line and I suddenly stopped. I couldn't do it, especially having a horrible score of 44,808, which is great for me. The Atari Power had won and saved me from doing a horrible action!
Though, if I ever got one million points, I would for sure put that in there because that is awesome! So, when you ever want to write in the Hi-Scores place in the back of the Atari 2600 game manual, stop and look through the pages. Embrace the Atari Power!
A spectacular weekend this turned out to be. I got a ton of games and the vast majority of them were for my favorite system to collect for, the NES. This weekend was a very busy one for me, I had a different party to go to for each of the 3 days this holiday weekend. The one from Sunday left me impaired Monday which is why I'm just now getting around to posting this.
Continue reading Treasure Hunt Chronicles '09 - #7
A Brave New World
As technology has developed through the years, the art of collecting in the video game arena has become a global experience. Our quest for that last game to complete a system library is no longer limited to local garage sales, flea markets and the rare 'Funcoland-type' retail stores. eBay, internet eCommerce sites and enthusiast forums have been the primary channels for these new purchasing gateways. This contemporary international marketplace provides great opportunities for us collectors, but also is accompanied by a bevy of questions, misnomers and technical challenges.
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This article will focus on many of these fronts, but not from the typical collector's viewpoint as many posts do. We will be interviewing Eric Krust, a successful video game proprietor based in Japan.
Eric is the owner and operator of Japan-Games.com and specializes in the selling of rare and obscure Japanese games and consoles. Many of the systems that you see featured in my collection are a direct result of transactions I have had with him over the past 4 years. He is a trusted ally and has agreed to take part in this interview to share some of his expertise and experience. 
Before the actual interview, a couple of possible assumptions might need to be dispelled. First, I am not affiliated with Japan-Games.com nor is this article intended to be an advertisement. No - I don't get any deals or commission or anything like as a result of this writing. In fact, it will possibly only increase competition for items that he sells that I want. I asked Eric to do this for the simple fact that I thought his input would be beneficial and a 'good read' for everyone. OK, enough of my bantering, on to the Q and A...
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< MG > Thanks Eric for taking the time with me this afternoon to partake in this interview. Let's first tackle how you got into the video game business, as well as came to be based out of Japan.
< EK > I think it all started with a copy of Samurai Showdown 2 for Neo Geo. I was in Japan and tooling around eBay and I noticed the game in auction. I remember seeing it for sale in a local game shop and realized that people were selling games from Japan. At that time I was an English teacher in Japan. My background was in real estate but I took a year off to do something interesting and now it's turned into 9 years....
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< MG > Are you a collector yourself as well as a seller? Would you consider yourself a gamer?
< EK > I'm a gamer but not a collector. I used to collect but when you have a warehouse full of games it seems kind of pointless. In a way everything I've sold is my collection. It might be temporary, but there is a sense of satisfaction to have owned so many rare consoles even if I don't have them anymore. I do have one collection that's nearly done with is a piece of software for every console ever released in Japan. I'm about 90% done.... still waiting to get my hands on a CreatiVision title. As a gamer I play Xbox 360, usually Team Fortress 2 with my Japanese friends.
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< MG > What are some of your favorite games as well as consoles, both retro as well as today's current generation?
< EK > There are a lot of different ways to rank consoles. In terms of beauty I'd have to go with the Toshiba TVG-610 or the Hitachi VG-104. For sheer coolness it would have to be the Palcom Laserdisc system. For collecting I like anything obscure like the EPOCH Atari consoles or the Bandai Gundam PC. I also have a soft spot for all of the Sega Dreamcast special editions and Xbox special editions from Japan. I usually play Xbox or SNES/N64. I have a small amount of games that I usually play over and over again. In reality I like collecting information more than anything else. I'd bet that my photo database for Japanese video games is the largest in the world. What you see on my website now is probably less than half of what I have. One day my collection will be to have the most comprehensive Japanese video game database on the plant.... if I can ever figure out the right way to do that... 
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Palcom Laserdisc system
Eric's right - this is a cool looking system! |
< MG > Thanks for sharing some of your background with us Eric. Let's move on to some of the burning questions from the community - international shipping - how costs are calculated and what are are the various shipping/tracking methods available, along with the pros and cons of each?
< EK > From Japan you can use EMS (3-5 days), SAL (3 weeks), or SEA (3 months). All have tracking. SAL and SEA don't offer insurance to all areas, notably the UK, Canada and Germany. It would be impossible to give all of the information in just one answer but this page will help: http://www.japan-games.co...hp?n=Information.Shipping. Cost can vary between Sellers. The fast-changing dollar-yen rate causes havoc with that sometimes.
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< MG > Another hot topic is how to run a system released in Japan at my home - from electrical to television requirements. Can you break down what is needed for both North America and European nations?
< EK > The US and Japan have no special requirements. You can plug in a Japanese console into a US outlet and vice versa without problems. One thing you should never do is mix and match power cables, though. Don't use an American plug in an American outlet on a Japanese console. Just use the Japanese plug and you'll be fine. Both countries are NTSC. The only issue you'll have to worry about is region protection. You can play older RF switch box games by using a regular composite cable and adapter and tuning your TV to channel 96. European requirements are more tricky. You will have to use a step-down transformer because the power is different and that can vary by region. You also have the PAL/NTSC issues with software.
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< MG > We know about eBay, Chase the Chuckwagon, Craig's List and the like, but what exactly is Yahoo Auctions? Why is bidding/participation limited to people with shipping addresses in Japan?
< EK > Yahoo is the dominant internet force in Japan. Because of that their Auction system is the dominant force in online auctions in Japan. eBay tried to break into the market about 10 years ago but never gained traction. Japan has natural barriers with language and geography. They have little to no practice using English beyond school textbooks and doing business over the internet is something they'll naturally shy away from because they won't ever fully understand the logistics of everything and their society has enough wealth where they can just sell to a Japanese Buyer and not worry about it. That's to say they don't need international Buyers. To them, selling to overseas Buyers is confusing, time consuming, risky, and of little financial benefit to them overall. They just don't see the benefit of opening up that can of worms for what amounts to a few extra dollars when they can just sell it to a Japanese person and not worry about anything. Proxy bidding services act as the middle man where there is something between the Buyer and Seller to facilitate the transaction for a small fee. That's really the only way that someone will be able to bid on Yahoo from overseas and actually have it be worth their time.
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< MG > I have heard of proxy bidding services? What exactly is this and how does it work?
< EK > The function of a proxy service is to complete the transaction in a way that's familiar to a Japanese Seller. The overseas Buyer places a bid and the proxy handles the transaction for them. The proxy will contact the Seller, make payment, receive the item in Japan, then ship it to the Buyer overseas. From the perspective of the Seller he's just sold it to a Japanese person living in Japan. Here's my proxy service: http://www.japan-games.co...rmation.YahooProxyBidding. This will also give more information and details regarding this service.
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< MG > What three items do you pinpoint as being the largest contributors to your success as an international dealer?
< EK > I'm assuming you're talking about business practices and not actual game related items? It's not really rocket science. Just know what you're selling, present it accurately and treat people fairly. Being professional in an inefficient marketplace goes a long way. There's still a lot of room for that. About half my sales are through repeat customers.
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< MG > Say I am considering getting into the business of being a reseller of video games and related items. What would be three critical tips you would have for me?
< EK > Know your product, test and present the product to eliminate all Buyer fears, then handle the business end of things professionally. Oh, yeah, and find a cheap source to buy from.... but good luck with that.
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< MG > What about tips for being a successful buyer? And no, I am not asking you to give away any of your trade secrets, but feel free to do share some if you would like
< EK > In reality all Sellers are really Buyers. Without good product then you'll never really be a Seller. You need to know what a good deal is and what isn't. You need to know a lot about your product because knowing one little change or special model is worth a lot more than others. You need to know rarity and be able to price things properly when there's sometimes no other sale to compare it to. The market goes up and down sometimes, so you need to know what will sell now and what won't sell now. Right now the financial crisis is hitting everyone, and the only good things selling are the rare consoles. A lot of the "standardized" items aren't selling at all. That means I'm not buying a lot of those items right now.
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< MG > One final question. Where do you see the video game marketplace in the next 5 years? Will eBay alternatives like Chase the Chuckwagon continue to spring up on the internet? What about locally in our respective backyards - will we see more local retailers in this area?
< EK > eBay will always be the dominant force. I've had a couple of websites for sales in the past but it takes a very, very long time to get it noticed and it takes a lot of money to advertise and keep the site running. In the end I knew I could just throw everything up on eBay and have it all sold in 10 days. So, that's what I did. There's always room for niche sites like Chase the Chuckwagon. I think they'll continue to grow. But in the end no matter how angry people are at eBay, no one can match their exposure. The other sites might be better, cheaper, more Seller friendly, but in the end it comes down to exposure and if you depend on a steady stream of sales to keep yourself in business it's hard to break away from eBay. I don't know enough about the video game marketplace overall to really comment on the industry as a whole, but one positive thing seems to be the small developers for the newer consoles, games you sometimes see in places like Xbox Live. The larger software developers have too much overhead that they tend to release the same titles over and over again as a safety net. The smaller titles with lower overhead can experiment more with being creative. When I bought my Xbox I never thought I'd spend so much time playing downloaded titles for under $10 that are just fun to play, games like Heavy Weapon, 3D golf, UNO, etc. I think those games are the heart and soul of gaming and it's getting a second chance. When people talk about their favorite games they almost never mention graphics but that's what the selling point is for newer games. People don't play Bomberman 20 years later because of the graphics, they play because it's entertaining. There will always be a need for the large companies to make games like GTA IV, but I think it's equally important to have the smaller shops making more entertaining titles to keep people interested in video games overall.
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< MG > Thanks again for taking the time with us Eric and sharing some of your insights and knowledge with me and the community. It is definitely appreciated and I can confidently say that we all found it to be very beneficial.
< EK > No problem. Glad to help out. Let me know if you have any follow up questions I can help you out with. Thanks!
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As always, questions and comments are always welcomed. Inquiries that I am not able to answer I will forward to Eric for his assistance. This interview was not intended to be all inclusive based on time restraints on both of our ends. I do hope you found it as interesting as I did though.
Thanks and happy gaming!
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A number of weeks ago, I got annoyed that one of the three Wico bat handles I own had apparently gotten the cord badly crimped at the boot. Out of this, not only was the boot broken off, but the joystick would no longer register 'down' due to a broken wire inside the cable... and, well, the rest of the cable at that point could not be trusted.
Being a proud owner of an Atari 7800, with a somewhat dislike for the design of the Proline controller, I figured it was time to make another controller for it. I've already made one controller, this one a gutted Space Invaders tv game.
I already had some wire I could use from a previous set of projects, but I still had to go to the local Radio Shack (boo!) to get some more parts. Among this was a piece of project perf board, some resistors to match the specs on the schematics for the 7800 controller pinouts, quick release connectors, and a male 9 pin connector (more on this in a bit). I also grabbed my one remaining untouched Sega Genesis 3-button pad to serve as a donor for the new cable.
My first job was to disassemble the Genesis controller, remove anything else of potential value, and snip the cable off the board. Once it was free, and the wires stripped, I used the male 9 pin to serve as a probe extension while I used my multimeter to verify which color was for which pin. The Genesis controllers don't seem to use the industry standard colors for the inner wires. I then carefully soldered all nine wires onto one side of the perf board, in order.
With that done, I turned my attention to disassembling the Wico. Once I was in, I was surprised to find I wasn't the first to be inside. The Wico has a switch on the base to switch between the stick top and base buttons. Someone prior to me had pulled the disconnects from the buttons, stripped off some insulation in the middle of each wire, twisted the two of them together, and reconnected them as an effort to bypass the switch. However, I had another idea for the switch, so I removed the modification entirely. Removing the switch, which is only friction fit into the base body, I carefully desoldered the entirety of the original wiring installation. In a fair amount of oddity, the switch is actually 'double pole double throw', rather than the 'single pole double throw' one would expect. The switch was made single pole by merely soldering together each 'pair' of conductors. I went ahead and verified that the switch was double throw with the multimeter, and soldered in new wires for the new role of switching the button roles in the 7800 design.
Now I went in to building the circuit. I had the controller cable soldered to the project board to not only provide myself a 'breakout', but also so I wouldn't have to try to shorten the boot on the cable itself. I added in two sets of resistors in series to make up the approximate rating of 520 ohms that the schematic called for, and bridged over to the appropriate second pins for each button. I wired in each side of the 'feed' for the switch to the other end of each bridged circuit to complete the wiring for the two buttons. I also wired in a set of wires for each positive feed for the directions and the buttons (the resistors and other pins for the buttons are actually on the 'ground' side of the selector switch) and crimped on new quick disconnects for those, as well as the two sides of the selector switch.
About this time, I realized I didn't have enough quick disconnects of the right size. I cut some more wire, and, soldering directly to the points on the leaf switches, created a ground loop on the directionals that terminated in a single wire that I then married to the ground 'cluster' on my perf board. I used the multimeter to ensure we had continuity everywhere, as well as to make sure I hadn't shorted together wires on the project board by bridging the gaps with solder, and proceeded to spend several minutes cramming the controller back together, and cursing the tight fit of everything.
I had to open it back up and reclose it when I ran the first test with Xevious, an excellent game for checking a two button stick on the 7800, as I had somehow managed to get the leaf switch for the base button pressed into the closed position the first time. But the second test went off without a hitch. I could fire cannons and bombs seperately, and I could also switch, on the fly, whether I bombed from the button on top of the stick, or on the base. And all four directions were functional again.
All in all, a very successful project, but not one I'll repeat on a good controller quite yet, in part because of the excessively tight fit of the new pieces into the existing controller shell.
Gaming Frustrations
Why do we finish some games but quit others some games way before the end credits have rolled? What makes us give up at a certain point rather than carrying on until the (bitter) end? This is my take on the phenomena of throwing in the towel.
Let me just say I'm not a completist by any means. I have a shelf full half finished or games that have I've not started (some still in the wrapper: Persona 4 for instance), but when I buy a game I do so with the intention of completing it. When I say "complete" I mean finishing the single player game on Normal difficulty.
As a rough estimate I'd say I complete between 10 and 20 percent of the games I buy. So why do I complete some games and not others. Off the top of my head I've come up with the followings reasons.
Frustration
This is probably the number one reason I give up on certain games, they become frustrating and the frustration outweighs the fun. When an entertainment product leaves you feeling stressed and agitated then that its no longer justifying its existence. This seems to be a big problem with a lot of games. I guess the games developers have to tread a fine line between offering the player a challenge and making game that's too difficulty but sometimes it's not necessarily a case of a game being too tough.
GTA4 is a good example of frustration - which in my opinion could have been easily avoided. At this point I'd like to have a moan about GTA games in general. When GTA3 came out I was blown away by how great the game was. I would sit at work thinking about it, dreaming up plans for my approach on the next mission. With GTA3 I got pretty close to end but a mission became so frustrating that I gave up. The main reason this has happened with every GTA game since then is due to the check pointing and not the lack of quick restarts. Shockingly 7 years after GTA3 this issue has still not been resolved. Yup, this brings me to GTA4. This is a relatively new game yet it still has the same flaws as GTA3, you can't quick restart, you loose all your weapons if you die and most annoyingly of all the missions are not broken down into decent sized checkpoints.
For example, I decided to give GTA4 another blast a few weeks back, after 10 minutes back in the game I was back in love GTA and questioned why I'd not made more progress. After repeating a mission 4 times I soon realised why. This particular mission involved: Step 1 - stealing a police car; Step 2 - lookup a convict on the police computer; Step 3 - track him down to a burger shot; Step 4 follow the baddie back to his hide out; and then finally Step 5 - kill baddie and all his friends. I managed Steps 1 - 4 without a problem, but the shootout ensues at his hideout leaves me dying on the floor in a heap (dead).
As I've not played the game for ages I forget how to take cover (ok this sounds like an excuse but the controls on this game are rather flaky for a 3rd Person action game). So I restart the mission again.. Now why, why, why, do I have to redo Step 1, 2, 3 and 4 all over again? I've already completed these steps flawlessly.. It takes a good few, very dull, minutes to repeat these steps before I can get to the part I messed up. To me this repetition serves no purpose, all it does is drag out - and water down the Fun per Minute ratio. Now maybe there are people who like this kind of punishing restart (the same kind of people that like have pins stuck in their eyes) and get some sense of achievement out of completing a mission in one go without failing anything but I'm not one of them. Why not stick a check point in the game? At least after Step 4 which involves a 2 minute drive from one part of the city to the other! I paid good money for this game but as I'm not prepared to put up with the lack of in mission checkpoints I don't get to see the end game. Personally, my free time is severely limited, to the extent that I need to spend it as wisely as possible. This is probably the reason I loved Saints Row (1 and 2) - there are instants restarts, which are very well implemented. By the way - check out the Saints Row franchise - it's not as polished as GTA but a lot more fun.
Getting Lost
with the sheer number of good games being released at the moment it's tempting to stick a game in and then whip it out as soon as then next hyped up triple A release comes out. This means I often "park" a game for no other reason than something bigger and better that's just dropped through the letter box. So when the hype dies down and I go back to the game I was playing previously I spend a long time trying to remember where I am in the game and what I'm suppose to be doing. Now this is more of a problem on some games rather than others. I would say RPGs are particularly bad offenders as they are all about the story. To get round this problem perhaps there should be a recap" options where the game provides quick catch up of the story and how the game works. To summarise: games need to be easier to get back into after they've not been played for a while - all systems have a date stamp on the game saves so where this is greater than 2 weeks there should be display the recap option. This would avoid the painful hour of wandering around aimlessly hoping something will jog your mammary so you can remember what's going off and how the game works. The fact that I know that I will have to spend this house getting back up to speed means I dont even bother going back to some games.
Getting Bored
There's not just too many games - there's too many long, drawn out games. The demographic of gamers has changed, many of us are older (30s+) and have full time jobs and families. A lot of us don't have the time to spend on games like we once did. I'm not saying I want short games but why make a game 40 hours if you only have enough game play ideas to cover 20? I would sooner have a short game that's of top notch quality rather than a long game where an idea has been stretched too thin. I thought Gears of War 2 was about the right length - the story was good and it was worth getting to the end. The main was the game didn't outstay it's welcome, just as I was starting to loose interest I could see the end in sight and pushed on to the finish line. I feel like I got my monies worth out of the game, there was also plenty of multiplayer action to increase the games longevity for those that want it.
Game difficulty
As I mentioned by default difficulty setting is Normal but sometimes I like of a challenge so start off on hard (My rationale for this is Halo 3 - too easy on Normal - just right on Legendary).. I started Killzone 2 on Hard but it turned out to be too difficult (i.e. rubbish controls - how can I take cover with a shoulder button, zoom in and lean out of a corner with only 2 hands, 8 fingers and 2 thumbs - need at least another one of everything to pull this off). It would be nice to be able to switch difficulty without having to restart the entire game. Or if you get stuck on a section of a game why not have the option to drop down to "Easy" to get through it.
Buying too many games
I've already mentioned this, and this is my fault, there are just so many good games out now. It seems so easy to buy too many games especially as a lot of the good ones are released in the run up to Christmas. I don't intend to do this but I get sucked in by the hype like everyone else. I say to myself, "I'll skip Far Cry 2 and pick up cheap in the New Year" but then I find myself clicking the Buy button on Amazon.. which means the game I'm half way through gets shelved while I try and get into the latest release.
If games contained less of these problems Im sure I would get more out of the limited time I have to play them and even push up the percentage of games I complete. There will always be certain games that you dont finish, for whatever reason, perhaps I need to devote more time to each game and buy less games overall. Maybe I need to put be more tenacious and not give up so easily :-)
Hey everyone! It's another non-Mega CD related blog post. As I'm posting this, I went to my Local Car Boot Sale for the first time, for the sole purpose of adding stuff to my game collection. Continue reading to see how I got on!
Continue reading First Car Boot Finds
I've enjoyed a variety of racing games over the years. In fact the first videogame I ever played was Night Driver on the Atari 2600.
The first simulation type racing game I played and enjoyed was Revs (BBC Micro). The game was a Formula 3 simulation with very nice pseudo 3D graphics. I seem to the recall the game being very difficult to learn and rather unforgiving which would put a lot of people off. You even had to use a clutch when changing gears (press the C button), but the game was highly rewarding when you got the hang of it. If you came any where in the top 6 cars you'd definitely earned it as the game took large amounts of concentration to put in good lap times and move up the field
In those days (the 80s) I would go to the Arcade on a regular basis and would always head to latest racing game as these tended to have massive custom cabinets with amazing graphics. A couple of arcade games spring to mind - Outrun, pumped plenty of 20p coins into this as game looked and sounded amazing. Then there was Monaco GP - again this was appealing for the awesome cabinet (complete with F1 Paddle Shifters) with force feedback etc.
Sega Rally and Daytona are probably my all time favourite arcade racing games. Both games blew me away when I first witness them running. This was not the first time I'd seen a 3D racing game but the first time I'd seen 3D graphics looking so polished and moving on screen so quickly and smoothly (must have been 60 FPS). The force feedback from Daytona took the game play experience to the next level and added massively to the immersion. The only problem with the game was it was 1 a go and this was 1994 which was a lot of money to a student in those days.
At home there were not that many racers to get excited about. As they failed to recreate or come close to the feeling of immersion created by a custom built cabinet. I found games like Gran Turismo to be sterile and overly complex, in fact this game did nothing for me. I bought it and thought it looked amazing but once I'd watched the intro and been blown away by the amazingly realistic replays I found the game dull and uninspiring. This is one of the few games which Edge magazine game 10 / 10 but left me feel cold.
The only games of the mid 90s that did much for me on the home consoles were Ridge Racer and Mario Kart. MK was a classic from the start - for me the SNES version was the best as I loved the mechanic of picking up coins to get a boost from the engine. The game was perfectly balanced and had some fantastic tracks. Ridge Racer was pure arcade and very well done. It's the only game that came close to recreating the arcade feel in the home environment, the way you could throw the cars round corners with spectacular power slides was a marvellous racing mechanic - I spent many a date trying to best the White Angel car (very tough).
Coming more up to date it's apparent that the racing game no longer holds the place in my heart it once did. Maybe I've seen everything the genre has to offer but I also think that a lot of racing games have become too hardcore and too bloated. Hundreds of cars and loads of tracks doesn't do much for me. Neither does the focus on realism and career modes. The racing games seem to have lost some of their pick up and play compactness when compared to the racers of yester year (rose tinted glasses firmly in place at this point). There are some exceptions. The burnout games have been a breath of fresh air and lots of fun. Getting back to the arcade style of racing and adding spectacular crashes has been a minor revolution for the genre - Burnout 3 then added the takedowns which again took the gameplay to another level. A truly wonderful series.
Then there's Forza 2 - which seems to have the perfect balance between simulation (rewarding following the racing line and breaking at the right time) and approachability. The game is very much a GT clone but does the GT thing without feeling so clinical. When you hook up the 360 force feedback wheel and bolt it to a table you have a very good racing game. A game which looks brilliant, it runs at 60 FPS which makes all the difference in a racing game, and sounds fantastic. The game also has a good online mode. It can be picked up very cheap now so it's a game worth checking out even if you don't particularly like racing games. The best thing the game adds to the racing game canon is the on track corner / breaking guide. Chevrons on the track show you where to turn in and when to break. This is great when trying to learn a new track and gets you on the racing line without removing the skill from the game, and of course it can be switched off if you want more of a challenge / more realism.
In terms of the future - there's nothing on the horizon that's looking to do anything new. Blur looks like it might be fun but in all honesty I'm not that excited about it. I will have a look at Forza 3 as I do rate the F2 very highly. GT5 - I'm sure this will look amazing but I still don't like the style of presentation in GT games so will probably give it a miss.
So I love ice cream and it saddens me to say that Canada is missing out on delicious flavors of ice cream. Now I've just had Ben & Jerry's Stephen Colbert's Americone Ice Cream and its really delicious. I also bought Ben & Jerry's Ginger Snap flavored ice cream and that was delicious too.  But Canada doesn't have these flavors. ALSO its super expensive in Canada. I also really wish I can buy green tea flavored ice cream. Since its one of my favorites. Also being lactose intolerant DOES NOT stop me and my love for ice cream.
... The End.
P.S. This is my birthday cake. You can see the love I have for ice cream now. It's a beautiful thing.
[img width=700 height=525]http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/4862/yume.jpg[/img]
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