Marble Madness
Hells yeah!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k154KxQ2Sw8]
That is all.
Ghosts of Ascalon – review
I finished my new book last night. It’s based on the Guild Wars universe and really sets the stage for Guild Wars 2 to come out in a several months. Some places are familiar if you’ve played the game, and the book offers a little deeper perspective on the magnitude of certain events that took place in Guild Wars the game. But you certainly wouldn’t have to have played the game, to understand the book.
In most ways I thought it was a great book. Not a masterpiece, but a nice read and well worth the $7.99 asking price. It’s of decent length, but also a fairly light read, so the pages go by pretty fast. The book does a great job of painting the new landscape, 250 years after the end of the first game. But it also illustrates the relationship between the races and the respect, or lack there of had for each other. The biggest complaint I have about the book is there’s a lot of times information feels a bit forced. “What? You haven’t heard about the Foefire? Well legend says…” There’s times were there’s some obvious lines or settings thrown in to appeal to the existing Guild Wars fanbase. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing, I guess I just prefer those moments to be a bit more subtle, than “You’re standing on X, where Y happened Z years ago.” Okay, so it’s not THAT blatant.
All in all, if you’re a Guild Wars fan, I’d call this a “must read”. It’s far and away better written than a common “Fan Fiction”, but it does feel written with a very deliberate purpose. To fill in a bit of the Lore gap between Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. That’s a lot of information to cover in one novel, and at times, it shows. All things considered, I’d give it an 8/10.
07.29.10Andrea is the coolest!
FFXIII Collector's Edition Strategy Guide
Lookie what she got me for my birthday! It’s pretty sweet. To be completely honest, I’m not much of a strategy guide guy. I like at least my first play through a game to be a complete act of challenge and discovery. And when I do need a guide, I usually just use IGN. But this is a little bit different. This is a very nice hardback bound book. It’s certainly exhaustive in its detail of the game, and features tons of great artwork to boot. It’s really a neat item to have and even if a person isn’t a Final Fantasy fan, I could lay this on the coffee table and people would pick it up just out of curiosity.
I really like it. I haven’t finished FFXIII yet so I haven’t really tore through it yet, but it is one of the coolest video game things I own now!
A Look Back: World Driver Championship
By now I have been hopelessly consumed by gaming, and specifically the N64 for almost three years. I was also full swing into the internet and considered myself “well informed” on all things gaming, and an aficionado on all things Nintendo. Yup, that’s right, I was a Nintendo fanboy in every sense of the term. I mention this because at the time (as a fan of racing games) the best racing game was Gran Turismo. Unfortunately for me Gran Turismo was exclusive to the PlayStation gaming console.
Could I have bought a PlayStation? … let me re-phrase that. Could I have afforded a PlayStation? Sure I had a part time job, I could have saved up the money in a month or two. But could I have bought a PlayStation? Resoundingly NO! As dedicated to Nintendo as I was at the time, the thought of giving Sony a single dollar was almost repulsive. My allegiance to “the Big N” was unwaivering. Even Nintendo’s slogan for the late 90’s was “Get ‘N’ or get out!” And if I couldn’t have Gran Turismo, fine, I’ll just spend my time playing stellar triple-A titles like Ocarina of Time, GoldenEye, Mario Kart… and I would be JUST fine.
However… as a fan I the racing genre I followed the devopment and release of this game probably closer than most would. It has it’s similarities to Gran Turismo: realistic physics, great graphics, detailed environments, etc. It didn’t have the licensed cars though, so what was obviously a Mustang in the game was named a “Stallion”. No sweat though. It was a driving game coming from Boss Studios. I had complete faith in the final product.
While at times my favorite developers don’t live up to expectations, Boss Studios truly came through for me with World Driver Championship. As you (probably don’t) remember, they released another favorite game of mine: Top Gear Rally. This game was every bit as fun, while still being a completely different kind of driving game.
I’ve looked forward to this re-review for a while as I loved the game so much back when it was new. I picked it up recently to discover that the game has actually aged fairly well compared to some of these titles that just are painful to look at. Fun to play and bearable to look at. Looks to be a fun game to re-experience indeed.
In all honestly the graphics are pretty darn good. Certainly pushing the limits of the N64. To up the ante even a bit further there is the normal full screen mode, but also a Hi-Res Letterbox mode that you could select. This offers a sharper picture at the expense of the black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. There’s no other performance hit that I could tell so I prefer the hi-res mode.
The game has a very loose character progression, in that you win more races, move up in the ranking and get offered better jobs. For the most part you could end up driving whatever you want as you move on, but there’s a few moments in the game that if you choose to drive for a certain team, you’ll block off a path for ever driving for that team’s arch rival. It’s a nice subtle change from just moving from one car to the next faster car mindlessly.
But what makes all good driving games? Good driving! I use the term “driving game” because really it is more that than racing. The computer cars do offer a nice challenge, but for the most part they are just part of a glorified time trial. The don’t really race against you as much as they run around the track at a certain pace. Still on the tougher courses they can be breathing down your neck, or be the difference between gold or silver.
The cars felt like real cars. They felt heavy and carried some momentum, not only around corners but over hills as well. What looks like a small bend on the map can actually be a tricky corner if set over the crest of a hill. The upwards momentum of your car can kill your downforce for a moment, long enough to slide you off the track if you’re not careful. The more you play the tracks, the better you get at knowing how to react to the environment.
I’d forgotten most of these tracks in general, but as I played more and more I started to remember which corners you had to take it easy on, and which ones you could hammer on through and the cars would stick despite feeling like you’re going a bit too fast. I guess that’s one of the things that made the experience so enjoyable. You really felt like you had to push the cars to their limits to achieve the fastest times.
The game is plenty long too. I didn’t get as deep into it as I once had, but deep enough to be able to appreciate some of the “remixes” of the tracks. Every track had at least two variations. They were the same for the most part, but one alignment might take you through a forest chicane, while another version lead you through 90 degree turns through a small village. Track memorization is still key, but changes enough that you aren’t a mindless zombie after just a few hours with the game.
As realistic racers go, this was the cream of the crop on the N64. And in my opinion STILL one of the better ones today. I had no problem getting into this game again and enjoying it all over again. In fact this re-review has lead me to appreciate some of its qualities even more and hope I don’t hesitate another 5 years to pick it up and do it all again!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-5vowmuOoM]
04.19.10I’m A Shining Blade.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hudy71ywdGw]
For those who haven’t been keeping tabs (can’t think of anyone in my circles who would be…) the folks that make Guild Wars kicked off a little viral marketing campaign last month at the Game Developers Conference and ComiCon by handing out these little propaganda fliers. The fliers had a little barcode in the corners that linked to a page on the Guild Wars website. Later a rival “faction” vandalized the page and the one-upmanship continued for a few weeks while fans picked sides of either the authorative and powerful White Mantle, or rebellious and liberating Shining Blade.
"Vandalized" White Mantle poster.
As fans chose sides some decided to role-play into the movement a bit, bringing familiar political spin to the legend and lore of the Guild Wars story. All of which took place up to that video being posted tonight on the GuildWarsGuru.com forums.
It’s been fun to watch, and it’s all leading up to some new content and a nice side story for Guild Wars 5th anniversary coming up this month. And for the record… Dismantle!
A Look Back: Micro Machines 64 TURBO
I could write a whole post simply about my love for Micro Machines (the toys) when I was a kid. Which I must admit, the inclusion of a real deal Micro Machines car in the box did help encourage the purchase. But I’d better stick to the subject here of Micro Machines 64. Of course given coming months of absolutely nothing coming out on the N64, I would have bought this game anyway simply because I had so much fun with the NES version when I was younger.
Original Micro Machines on the NES.
The presentation of this game on the Nintendo 64 is practically unchanged from the game that came out almost 10 years earlier on the “regular” Nintendo. Infact if you’ve played both games, 64 Turbo almost feels more like a port of the original into the 3-D realm. I’d almost swear some of the courses are identical.
Micro Machines on N64. I guess the table cloth is different.
The concept couldn’t be simpler. Imagine you’re a kid with a whole lunchbox full of Micro Machines. Naturally you’d take whatever you found laying around the house or the yard and set up little courses for them to drive. Whatever was in your immediate surroundings was fair game. Back yard? Sand shovels, lawn sprinklers, dog toys. On Dad’s pool table? Pool cues, balls, and of course drawing out the course with chalk! Dad would be pleased! Good thing this is just digital. So as so many games can do, Micro Machines is able to take a very relate-able concept and stretch it just a bit into fantasy and have some fun!
This wasn’t a milestone game for me, but I did have fond memories of the original, and it came out at a time where there was simply nothing else worth buying on the N64 that I didn’t already have. Even still, the fact that there was really nothing new in this redux became a disappointment. The courses were nearly identical. Even the characters were exactly the same. All of them, down to the “black leather jacket, too cool for words” Spider. If you could be a bad ass with Micro Machines… Spider was that guy.
Couldn't even introduce a "New Guy" in 10 years. C'mon it's not like these are sacred franchise chacarters.
Another issue that really held this game back for me was the steep skill curve. The first couple levels start off easy enough, but by the third or fourth level, course memorization is practically required because you’re just going too damn fast and with the camera angle, you can’t see what’s coming up. You end up having to slow down to avoid flying off tables, unfortunately doing so means all the CPU players are long gone in front of you. Once you have the course committed to memory, you can use landmarks like a salt shaker or a flask to cue when you begin the next turn before it’s even on the screen. Then you can really lay down some wooping. Of course then when you FINALLY DO win, it’s onto the next unfamiliar course, and with only 3 lives, you’re likely to be eliminated before you can get a handle on the course. Which means you have to race your way back to where you were in the game. So the farther you make it, the less excited you are about having to rewin all your previous races just because you aren’t a Jedi Master.
So as I popped this game back in the other day, I experienced exactly what I remember from my younger days. 10 minutes of fun, thinking about all the fun I had with the NES version, followed by 5 minutes of frustration and ultimately deciding there’s something else that’s more fun than this to play. Though this game always makes me wonder what happened to all my Micro Machines…. I had cars, and planes, and trains….
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCx865cgmd4]
First podcast of the decade
Well I was feelin’ it today and decided to knock out a Podcast. Not saying it’s interesting, but as usual bring me your tired, your creepy and your bored. They shall be served.
12.31.09Only one word to describe the following…AWESOME!
PS3 and Madden 10
12.3.09
A look back: Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
What was I thinking? I mean, I knew better. I could hardly stand the first Turok game. But when you’re as hopelessly consumed with games that you’ve already beaten everything and you have and darn near everything that’s ever came out for the N64 (the good stuff anway), what’s a kid to do? Turok 2 gets off to a good start right off the shelf with a cool leathery textured box and a slick black cartridge. Sadly the trend of being more fun to look at than actually play continues from the box art to the screen once you fire it up in the system.
Ends up, the reasoning for purchasing this game can be summed up in just two words. “Eye Candy”. And as these re-reviews have proved to me time and time again pretty much EVERY game I bought on the N64 primarily for graphics hasn’t stood the test of time well. Just like with games of today, back then some of the shortcomings in gameplay and fun PLAYING the game can be made up by the detail and awe the graphics provide. Especially when 3D gaming was still in its infancy. Cool new effects and rendering techniques were a joy to experience for the first time. But as time goes on and other snazzy looking games come out, older graphics just don’t impress like they used to.
For me this game was all about graphics. And yes. That's a dinosaur with cannons on its back.
So this was a difficult game to re-play. The level design is sketchy at best. Precarious jumps from platform to platform seem like a needless challenge that serves only to frustrate. I found myself ALWAYS low on ammo and having to back-pedal halfway across maps while chucking 10 arrows into a dinosaur with a laser gun chasing me down. It wasn’t long before I remembered the only way I ever made any progress in this game was by plugging in the “All Weapons and Ammo” cheat.
This was one saving grace this game had. There were some really interesting weapons. Over the top stuff like the “Cerebreal Bore”. The instruction manual explains some BS about locking on to enemy brainwaves. But the fact is it’s cool just to kick back, lock on to an enemy’s skull and watch this slow moving projectile pursue some random rifle toting dinosaur monster thing as they scamper away, then drill into their skull and then BOOM! Sounds graphic and for the time it probably was, but it certianly doesn’t look realistic by any stretch.
The gore was excessive enough to be humorous in most cases.
Unfortunately that’s it. Once I’d had fun playing with all the guns, there was just no motivation to keep playing the game. The story isn’t integral to the game, so you don’t really care what happens next, and the levels and enemies aren’t interesting enough to care what’s around the next corner.
If nothing else Turok 2 is a good example of how hopelessly obsessed I was with gaming at the time. When I could beat a game in a week or two tops, and it was months, or even years at times between decent games, as Gramps would say, “We played with what we had at the time.” Unfortunately the time I spent with Turok 2 was much better spent doing just about anything else. I never even got close to beating the game. And the tacked on multi-player was utterly worthless. So as little as the game had to offer back then… I truly see NO redeeming qualities today.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWgwBBNWpZU]
The IGN Boards update…
I seriously have no one to share this with that I actually know… you know… in real life. But after being on the IGN boards for eight years… this is honestly one of the funniest things I’ve seen in MONTHS!
I know no one gets it. I wish I knew someone that did so we could laugh together. I seriously had to wipe the tears from my eyes.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwY8VFNc5hw]