Got City Folk!
Well I came home today and Andrea said she had a surprise for me. I figured she cooked me a nice homemade supper. Turns out she decided to pick up Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Wii!
I haven’t put a ton of time into it yet. But so far it’s very similar to previous Animal Crossing games. You just get to town, and you’re stuck working for Nook…AGAIN! Doing all the exact same chores he had you do clear back on the Gamecube. I was able to move my character from the DS onto the Wii though, which was pretty neat. Although I couldn’t bring any of my stuff with me.
It’s easier to play than the Gamecube version, thanks to the Wiimote, you can just click and drag items around, and it’s a lot easier to type letters. It controls pretty much exactly like the DS version. The cool part is you can go online and visit other towns. But even if you don’t have the internet, you can store your character on a DS and use that DS to travel to another person’s town on a different Wii. So I could set it up to travel to my DS. Put it in sleep mode. Then when I got to my sisters’s house on her Wii, open the DS back up and travel to her town. And visa versa to get back. Pretty snazzy, and hopefully I get a chance to try it out. As of now I’m the only person I know that has the game…so there’s really nowhere to travel to!
Been busy.
I know I’ve been absent from posting for a while. But it’s been busy around here lately. At least it seems like it has. This last weekend Andrea’s niece and nephew came up. I guess you could call it babysitting, but I honestly had a good time. We’re doing our part on being a bad influence. Her niece was supposed to be grounded from the TV, but we forced her to play Wii Sports all weekend. Took a lot of convincing, let me tell ya. And her nephew just ran around playing with hotwheels cars all weekend. A lot less screaming than I expected.
This week has been somewhat nerve wracking at work. Everybody is nervous because there’s rumors of paycuts. Though I haven’t actually heard anything substative on that. But mosty everyone griping that Smokey Dan needs to hit the road before anybody takes a paycut around there. And I whole heartedly agree. It’s not that I don’t like the guy. He really is a decent guy a heart, and I don’t wish anybody to be out of work. But the man is truly incompetent. He creates about as much work for everyone else as he gets done. It would rub a lot of people the wrong way if they had to make a sacrifice to save his job. Like I say, I hope it’s all rumors, but if there is any truth to them, I hope the people in charge remember that this is a business…not a charity.
Got a little bit of work done on the car yesterday at lunch. It was idling a little rough the other night, so I decided to put a new distributor cap and rotor on. The parts were cheap, and who knows when it was last done. I pulled the old ones off and they didn’t look too terrible. A little corrosion, but they’d obviously been replaced sometime in the last 200,000 miles. But I went ahead and put the new parts on anyway. Seems to run a smidge smoother, but I think the main problem is the carburetor. So I bought an old one and I’m gonna try my hand at rebuilding it. Hopefully after that it’s just like new, and I’m back up to getting 24 MPG on the hiway like I did when I first bought the thing! It just kinda sucks working on the car now that it’s cold and dark by the time I get off work.
Outside of that, I’ve found myself on the computer less. I’ve been playing a lot of the game I’m doing for my next N64 re-review. I’ve probably already spend about 4 hours playing it, and I think I might go ahead and try to beat the game again before I write the review. Some of these games it’s really hard to get into now, just beacuse they’re dated, or I have already played them to death. But the fact I’ve spent so much time on this game in the last week, it truly a testament to how great it is, and how well it stands the test of time. Look for the review closer to Thanksgiving.
11.11.08A look back: Top Gear Overdrive
There was certainly no shortage of racing games on the Nintendo 64. While this one probably seemed just like one of many to everyone else, I had actually been anticipating it for quite some time. As a big fan of its predecessor Top Gear Rally, I was anxious for an update. In reality Top Gear Overdrive turned out to be a completely different name, sharing very little with the one that came before it. It was a mixed bag, but a decent game in its own right.
This was another of many games that I was at the store early to pick up on day one. The pre-release impressions of the game on IGN64.com were favorable. Excellent graphics, unlockables, and a much anticipated “hi-res” mode. Cars were more detailed than any other game on the N64 up to that point. They featured a “glossy” look to them. While the reflections on the paint and glass weren’t true reflections of the surroundings, they worked well enough to really make the cars seem a bit more realistic. The tracks were as well designed, even a bit more detailed than Top Gear Rally’s.
Infact at the time, the game’s only real shortcoming was its length. I remember bringing the game home and a friend of mine, Bef, came over. We sat down and had a blast with the game. But in the course of that very night we had already beaten the entire game and unlocked everything save for the “hidden” cars. It was a bit disappointing that $70 didn’t provide more than a few hours of gameplay. There wasn’t even a time trials mode to sink time into. Just rinse and repeat the entire experience to earn some hidden cars. Not my idea of “replay value”.
I have to be honest though, when I plugged this back in today, I was far from impressed. This game really highlights how far video game technology has come in the past 10 years. The sound is horrible. Music tracks are actual recordings from a band named “Grindstone”. Screaming guitars, that sort of thing. But due to the space constraints of the N64 cartridge, they were so compressed they sounded absolutely awful. You probably wouldn’t notice it through a three inch paper speaker on your TV, but through any kind of sound system, it really grates on the ears. MIDI tracks would have been a better choice, and that’s saying something. Like most of these games, the graphics take a little time to adjust to and all in all, they haven’t aged well. I had high hopes for the “High Res” mode, but to be honest. I couldn’t even tell a difference between the two.
The most annoying part of this game for me now, is the controls. The cars feel like they weigh just a scoop heavier than two bags of dog food. The slightest twitch of the control stick can send your car careening into the wall. Investing some money in “handling” serves to make the controls even more sensitive. Unfortunately as you progress through the game, the speeds become so insane, you need insane cornering ability just to get through the track. If you do happen to twitch at the wrong time, you’re likely to either go literally FLYING off the course and burst into a ball of…orange fuzz. Or just smack a wall and do the same. It’s a very frustrating task unless you’ve memorized the tracks. Which sadly, I have forgotten.
I tried to give the game a chance, but after about 45 minutes I’d had enough. Really expected to have more fun with the game, but it wasn’t in the cards. There are so many better racing games even just on the N64. At the time, all the game really had going for it was some fairly impressive eye candy. Now that I’ve been spoiled by today’s games that doesn’t leave much left to appreciate on this one.
11.5.08A Look Back: Cruis’n World
Cruisin’ World really was a mixed bag for me. Against popular opinion, I was a big fan of the first game: Cruisin’ USA. Dated it was, but it was plain, simple, fun. My first and most impressionable experience with this game was in its arcade form. I remember they had a full arcade cabinet in the Dodge City mall movie theater. Any time we happened to end up there I pumped that thing full of quarters. Something about it was just too fun. Maybe it was the way the wheel jumped around and pushed back against you in the corners, or double tapping the gas pedal to do some sweet jumps.
Wouldn't mind having one of those in my basement!
My anticipation for the N64 version was long and drawn out. I enjoyed the game at the mall, but longed for my own copy I could pick up and play whenever I wanted. Putting Cruis’n World on a cartridge seemed like a no brainer to me, but business executives must have seen it differently. I couldn’t tell you how long it was, but it seemed like years from when I first sat in that hard plastic chair in the arcade, to the day I read Cruisin’ World was to be released on the N64.
Unfortunately the long wait for the game had somewhat diluted my fanaticism for the game. I’d already played it quite thoroughly. That didn’t stop me though from being at the store the day it was released to pick it up. Rather than delirious excitement, I felt more relieved that it was finally out, and I finally had it. The kind of relief you get when you loan a game to a friend and finally get it back after asking for it for months.
When I plugged this one back into the Nintendo 64 today, all the cheezy 20 second loops of music came back like it’d been a couple days since I last played. At least the music was of much better quality than Cruis’n USA in just about every way music can be quantified. The car models (which weren’t too impressive, even at the time) are reminiscent of the kinds of cars you cut out of the side of a Happy Meal box and fold together. Given the “not serious at all” attitude of the game though, they’re easily dismissed. The learning curve is very gentle. Maybe two races in, I was pulling off all the turboslides and jumps without much difficulty. I’d forgotten a lot, but it’s all so close to the surface, it doesn’t take long to discover it again. Considering the nature of the game was to be played maybe 5 minutes a day in an arcade, it’s not too surprising that there isn’t much depth here.
It seems easier to compare Cruis’n World and USA more objectively now. World is far and away a better game in just about every aspect. Better graphics, sound, and controls. But a few of the things that were definitive to the series I noticed were missing. Namely extremely low resolution scantly clad women. No bikini waving flag girls. No double D breasted small t-shirt wearing ladies. Not that those five frame animated females do anything for me, but it’s just one of those over the top cheezy touches that really completes the Cruis’n experience.
As much as my anticipation had waned over the months of waiting, I could tell by the data still saved on the cartridge, that I still put a relevant amount of time into this game. All the cars were unlocked and some reasonably impressive times were posted. I can’t imagine now spending much more than a good 30 minutes with this game…but looking at the release dates for the time, Cruisin’ World came out during a pretty good gaming drought. From Top Gear Rally in October 1997 until Zelda over a year later, there wasn’t much new worth playing. For lack of anything better to play, I must have poured a decent amount of free time into this. While it was fun to sit down and cruise the world…I don’t see myself seriously picking up this game for quite some time again.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLsKgxGPZDY]
11.3.08Some of my favorite Guild Wars scenes.
Well, since we have no digital camera, and it’s going to be Thanksgiving before we can get it back…the blog will be a bit devoid of pictures. To counter the giant blocks of text that will surely take over, here’s a few of my favorite views in the game of Guild Wars!
Standing on a precipice in "The Falls".
Another view.
Extravagant sewers in Kaineng City.
Peaceful Shing Jea country side.
A look back: Yoshi’s Story
This installment will be a bit different in that I’m unable to go back and play this game. Yoshi’s Story for the Nintendo 64 holds a place of distinction as the only game I’ve ever had that I brought myself to sell out of my collection. It’s not that I didn’t give the game a chance, I most certainly did. My disappointment simply left me with no attachment to the game.
By 1998 I was becoming deeply entrenched in my gaming hobby. I looked forward to my monthly Tips & Tricks magazine, and drooled over the previews and screenshots. My Nintendo promotional stuff continued to arrive in the mail. Lately all the buzz was about the new Yoshi’s Story. I soaked up every bit of information I could before the game was out. And come release day I was on my way to the store to pick up my copy.
To understand my disappointment with the game you should understand its heritage. Yoshi’s Story is a direct sequel to Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island which as implied in the title, is a direct sequel to Super Mario World itself. With roots so deep in the Mario series like that, you would expect to see all the fun and challenge you’d get from a traditional 2-D Mario game. While succeeding in being cute and artistic, it falls short of being a truly memorable experience. I should have known the instant I heard the annoying title screen music…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ijs6jDqp3A]
In all honesty I put a considerable amount of time into this game. I never beat the game, but progressed far enough to obtain, most (if not all) the different colored Yoshi’s. So many previews predicted a grand resurgence of 2-d platforming, now with the hardware muscle to make ANYTHING possible. It was actually being touted ad 2 1/2-D! I tried everything I could to force myself to like this game. It felt like an obligation to enjoy it because so much had been promised. But no matter what, it just wasn’t compelling. Nothing hooked you in and made you wonder what’s around the next corner. It was a well polished game lacking challenge and innovation. Much ado was made amongst nerds like myself about Mario creator Shiguru Miyamoto’s lack of involvement in the title.
One day I put the game on the shelf, and never picked it up again. Until a younger kid down the street came over. He was about 10 years old or so, and saw the game as he was sifting through my collection and asked if he could play it. I told him sure, and he sat down and genuinely was having a good time. He wanted to know if he could borrow it…and I said, “For $20 you can borrow it forever!” Like a good kid he ran home to ask his mom. A while later he came back with a $20 bill and that’s the last I ever saw of Yoshi’s Story.
10.14.08My old ways…
You know how they say if you have a habit, and then you quit that habit it’s easy to fall back into the trap? I’m starting to feel that happen again with the IGN Message Boards. Though I wouldn’t really call it a habit. More like a tendency. What’s the first sign of addiction? Denial? Ha ha!
It’s probably unknown to most of the readers here, that my history with IGN is long and storied…dating back to when it was just N64.com (best viewed in 600×800 ha ha). My message board profile was created in 2001 and since then I’ve racked up 4,452 posts. To me that’s quite a bit. Though there’s many members there with over 10,000 posts! I’ve wasted a lot of time and stayed up way too many nights rapping on the IGN boards.
I think what started it is partly all the nostalgic N64 reviews I’ve been doing, but mostly us having the Wii now. I probably was most addici…interested in the IGN boards back in the GameCube days. Ashamed, I admit I spent more time on IGN talking about games than actually playing them. And I was paying $15 a year to do it. (Still do! He he.) But it was a transitional time for me. I’d just gotten out of high school where I had plenty of time to play my games, and play them until they were beaten. To college, going to class, going to work, and trying to have a social life. I must emphasize TRYING! I didn’t have the time to devote that I used to. But somehow I had the time to sporatically check the boards throughout the day. If I couldn’t play my games, I could at least read and talk about them. At one point the stack of games I had built up that I had barely played was pathetic. All the money I’d spent on these games, just to have them, only to TALK about them on IGN. Sheesh.
Here's a game I bought almost 5 years ago. I have played it for about 30 minutes.
But this post is SUPPOSED to be about how all of a sudden I find myself returning to the boards. I sort of fell out of the boards as the Gamecube approached its end of life. But now that we have the Wii…I find myself able to stay up with all the latest topics. Just this week, the boards were abuzz with a new game that was coming out called World of Goo. If you were like Andrea you would just dismiss the game because of its silly name. But in reality, it’s a fantastically fun puzzler and it’s only $15. Had it not been for the IGN boards I probably would have dismissed it myself. At the same time…if it weren’t for the IGN boards I wouldn’t have even known about the game, and being ignorant to its exsistance, wouldn’t have missed never playing it, and thus never spent the money in the first place!
That is the whole point of this long diatribe here. That perhaps the boards aren’t the most healthy thing for me FINANCIALLY. Ignorance is bliss…and cheap apparently. Posting and reading on the boards makes me want things I otherwise wouldn’t have even known about. And its going to take great restraint to avoid a whole new stack of games I barely have time to play.
10.3.08A look back: GoldenEye 007
Much has been written and said about this one. It wasn’t just an influential game for me, for millions of people (8 million to be more precise) this game revolutionized shooting games and the multiplayer experience. For the industry, it shaped every game in the genre that would come after it. For me, it was just as…if not more significant than Mario Kart 64.
Like many others, to me this game began as a mystery. Through the same channel I’d received my Star Fox promotional VHS tape, I also got a manila folder gussied up to look like an MI6 intelligence dossier. Inside were various screenshots of the game, lists of all the weapons, and all sorts of stuff to whet the appetite. At the time most of my Bond experiences were flipping through channels and seeing sweet car chases. I liked James Bond movies, but certianly not the kind of fan people think of me as today. Read the rest of this entry »
09.29.08A look back: Star Fox 64
I feel like this installment should start off with MY first impression of Star Fox 64. Please watch the following:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBF3X3ZaS2Q]
At some point in time I must have signed up to recieve Nintendo promotional material. One day a VHS tape showed up with the above video on it. I held onto the tape for the longest time, but I think I finally parted with it just a couple years ago. This game came out shortly after Independence Day and I recall the scene where the UFO settles over the pyrimad seeming errily familiar.
When I got PilotWings 64 back on that Christmas day, this is what I was expecting. Not that I was disappointed with PilotWings, just that I had to wait this long for a game I had imagined on that day. This was all out aerial assault. At the time it really felt like you were in the cockpit of a fighter. You had the ability to lock on to enemies and launch guided shots at them. You could do flips and of course you could “Do a barrel roll!”
For the time, this game was slightly different in that it was designed to be played in one sitting. No save points or anything like that. Think the old Super Mario games where you either had to leave the machine on while you were away, or sit down and kick Bowser’s butt right then and there. This approach, however, left me feeling a bit disappointed in how short the game was. By this time I was used to getting a new game and spending the next couple weeks beating and mastering it. Despite the short gameplay, the “hard” route which required you to accomplish all bonus/hidden objectives did provide some challenge and there were medals you could earn for accuracy.
I believe one of the objectives of this game was to show off some of the technical abilities of the Nintendo 64. It was the first game on the system to use voice acting in any significant form. Due to storage restrictions on the N64 carts, the audio was quite compressed. All the voices were over your ship’s “radio” channel, and due to the compression they sounded very walkie-talkie like. But in the context of the game, the audio quality could almost be perceived as intentional.
But undoubtedly the game was primarily to showcase Nintendo’s new peripheral the “Rumble Pak”. One of Nintendo’s console innovations that is now common place today. You plugged this into the controller where the Memory Paks go, and it provides variable vibrations depending on what happens to your character. While novel, I never really found it much more immersive than without it. Give me a good subwoofer that will let me feel explosions, and I’m much happier!
My biggest disappointment with this game was…never having anyone to play multiplayer with! The multiplayer mode in this game was fantasitc! However when people came over, we always ended up playing Mario Kart or later, GoldenEye. I was never phenominally good, but no one else ever seemed willing to endure the learning curve long enough to stay interested, and thus all my multiplayer matches were short-lived.
Still a great game, but now hard to go back to because it is so short and predictable. If I had some friends to play with, however…I could multiplayer into the night. Bryan where are you!?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU-a6ZkF0io]
Lots of fun times…for a geek like me.
Well as posted earlier, we got the Wii this weekend. Andrea has already worked up some mighty sore muscles from hitting home runs in Wii Sports. I’ve been sitting around for hours creating Miis of everyone I can think of. I’ve been really enjoying the new Mario Kart, though I’m a little dissapointed they dumbed down the powerslides this time around. But still a blast none-the-less. I am still favoring the old controller over the tilt method you can use with the Wiimote. Started a little bit on Mario Galaxy, but haven’t gotten very far yet.
Biebs hooked me up with an old 160GB hard drive he had laying around, so installed Ubuntu on it and have been having great success so far. Still have a little bit of work to do getting Guild Wars to run in Linux, but I’m confident I’ll get there. It’s my first step to shedding Windows completely on my next computer I build, hopefully sometime next year!
So lots of geeky stuff to play around with, and as always not enough time for it all. If only I could get by on like 2 hours of sleep!