The Gaming Diary: Chapter 3

[MetalFRO]

Just finished God of War: Ghost of Sparta. Still a great game, and Ready At Dawn really adapted the GoW formula well to the handheld for this outing. Having finally played it on native hardware, I can safely say they really did the series justice.

[Link41]

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) - I now approach Ganon's Castle.

[bombatomba]

I finished DOOM (2016) weeks ago and it is easily (along with Dragon Quest Builders) my top game of 2018.  I found it on the back endcap of Target for about $8, and I think I bought it because I hated Doom 3 so much (primarily for its pacing, I think).  So:

Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition - I have to say this is fun, despite it containing my biggest pet peeve with DOOM and it's clones: backtracking.  So much fun.  No idea if I will have the stamina to power through all four episodes, but I will certainly try.
 On the technical side, I am playing the Megaton Edition on Steam, and thank God that it wasn't "upgraded" when GearBox brought Duke back to Steam in the 20th Anniversary World Tour, which has a couple of upgrades but missing the extra content from Megaton.

Fallout: New Vegas - Just meandering about right now, not really doing anything.  So far it seems fine, but I don't know if I am ready to play another massive open game, especially a Fallout game (which I've never really had a ton of interest in).  Well, I will sally forth anyway, at least until I get bored and move on.

Castlecrashers - Not feeling this game at all.  I gave it an hour, but in the end I just don't feel any motivation to pick it back up again.  Oh well.  Maybe another time.

[MetalFRO]

I burned through Mega Man 8 on Switch over the last few days. Those auto-scrolling sections are evil, because the sprites are bigger, so there's less playfield space, which means less reaction time for things like jumps and slides at high speed. It's doable, but in my advancing years, my reflexes aren't what they were when I was 20. That aside, and a bit of cheapness with a couple bosses and Wily having some randomness to him, I enjoyed it overall. I'm baffled that they removed the E tanks, though, and replaced it with a "once per level" Rush power-up where he drops life and weapon capsules for you. It's a lifesaver during the Wily fight, but I would have rather had a stock of E tanks to pull from instead.

I also went back to the original Syphon Filter. I know that it's going to be on the up-coming PlayStation Classic, and while I applaud Sony for its inclusion, I think the lack of the analog sticks is a problem, because the game plays much better with the ability to use the left stick, in my opinion. Also, when playing it again, I got sucked right in, the same way I did when I first bought it 20 years ago. I will definitely be writing some thoughts on this...

[bombatomba]

I also went back to the original Syphon Filter. I know that it's going to be on the up-coming PlayStation Classic, and while I applaud Sony for its inclusion, I think the lack of the analog sticks is a problem, because the game plays much better with the ability to use the left stick, in my opinion. Also, when playing it again, I got sucked right in, the same way I did when I first bought it 20 years ago. I will definitely be writing some thoughts on this...

That is the only reason I will not be picking one of these bad boys up.  Practically speaking, it is a nice device, especially if it manages to play the games well.  But that controller...  Thinking about playing some of those games makes my thumbs hurt in sympathy.  The fighting games - fine!  No problems.  But I played FFVII on my PSX and my thumbs were almost dead by the time I was done.  I'd put the disc in my old XPS laptop and emulate if I could avoid that kind of thumb abuse again.

[Link41]

I also went back to the original Syphon Filter. I know that it's going to be on the up-coming PlayStation Classic, and while I applaud Sony for its inclusion, I think the lack of the analog sticks is a problem, because the game plays much better with the ability to use the left stick, in my opinion. Also, when playing it again, I got sucked right in, the same way I did when I first bought it 20 years ago. I will definitely be writing some thoughts on this...

That is the only reason I will not be picking one of these bad boys up.  Practically speaking, it is a nice device, especially if it manages to play the games well.  But that controller...  Thinking about playing some of those games makes my thumbs hurt in sympathy.  The fighting games - fine!  No problems.  But I played FFVII on my PSX and my thumbs were almost dead by the time I was done.  I'd put the disc in my old XPS laptop and emulate if I could avoid that kind of thumb abuse again.

Not to mention that half of the games on the PS Classic will be the inferior PAL versions... How could Sony mess this up so bad?

[Raidou]

Decided to play Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age with a one character challenge run.  Generally not too hard, but it really made me realise how many damned insta-kill attacks this game has, practically none of which you can protect yourself against.  Ribbon (a rare accessory) protects against Doom and that's it.

Not to mention that half of the games on the PS Classic will be the inferior PAL versions... How could Sony mess this up so bad?

Seriously??? There's no excuse to release PAL versions in PAL territories in most cases.  And yes, the non-DualShock controller is a big mistake- as is the decision to use a different port type from the original.  Sony will lose out on sales from retrogamers who would want official replacement controllers for their original PS1 and PS2 systems.

[Disposed Hero]

Red Dead Redemption 2 - I finished this over the weekend. I really enjoyed it overall. I still think some of the mechanics are clunky and cumbersome, but they weren't bad, and the story, characters, and world were all excellently done. If the gameplay were tighter, this would probably be my GOTY.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider - I finally got back into this after letting it sit for about 2 months after finishing the prologue. I'm really enjoying it. It seems to be fairly light on combat, at least it is so far, and more focused on exploration. I also enjoy the South American jungle setting far more than the snowy mountain setting of Rise of the Tomb Raider.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - I finally picked this game back up after letting it sit for a few months. I still have high hopes that I will get way into these games like I did with Trails in the Sky, but so far it isn't happening. It isn't a bad game at all and I'm sure I can stick with it until the end, the story is just pretty slow and uninteresting so far.

Deltarune - I've been playing this a little here and there. I played Undertale for the first time about a year ago and really enjoyed it, but Deltarune isn't really grabbing me.

[MetalFRO]

Sony will lose out on sales from retrogamers who would want official replacement controllers for their original PS1 and PS2 systems.

I wonder if this will mean someone will come up with an adapter to use an original PS1 DualShock pad with the Classic, much like 3rd parties have made accessories and controllers for the NES Classic.

[mumboking]

Sony will lose out on sales from retrogamers who would want official replacement controllers for their original PS1 and PS2 systems.

I wonder if this will mean someone will come up with an adapter to use an original PS1 DualShock pad with the Classic, much like 3rd parties have made accessories and controllers for the NES Classic.

I'd assume it wouldn't support the DualShock, even if someone did make an adapter.

[MetalFRO]

Sony will lose out on sales from retrogamers who would want official replacement controllers for their original PS1 and PS2 systems.

I wonder if this will mean someone will come up with an adapter to use an original PS1 DualShock pad with the Classic, much like 3rd parties have made accessories and controllers for the NES Classic.

I'd assume it wouldn't support the DualShock, even if someone did make an adapter.

I don't know, the product is based on an existing emulator, so it's possible that functionality will already be baked in.

[Raidou]

The core emulator wouldn't be the problem it would be the wiring at the controller port.  The port would have to have enough connectors to register the analogue stick inputs which it may not have.

[mumboking]

The core emulator wouldn't be the problem it would be the wiring at the controller port.  The port would have to have enough connectors to register the analogue stick inputs which it may not have.

The controller ports are USB ports.

[MetalFRO]

Beat Syphon Filter a couple nights ago, and blogged about it last night, which you'll be able to read in a couple days

[Disposed Hero]

Shadow of the Tomb Raider - I finished this and really enjoyed it overall. I liked this one more than Rise of the Tomb Raider, but not as much as the original 2013 reboot. I will say that this one felt a bit more rushed to me than previous entries due to some jankiness with the platforming that I don't remember from the other titles, but nothing too bad. I'm kind of glad that this is supposed to be the last game of Lara's origin story since the formula of these games is starting to feel a bit played out, and I hope that they can innovate and do something a bit different with the next Tomb Raider game.

Guacamelee! - I originally started this game on PS4 over 2 years as a simple game to play while using my stationary bike and got about halfway through it. Then I got out of the habit of exercising for about 2 years, and the game sat dormant for all that time. I've finally found the motivation to start easing myself back into exercising again, and picked this game up right where I left off. It's a good game and I enjoyed it, but I do think it's a tad overrated when it is commonly regarded as one of the best Metroidvanias ever. I like the platforming elements a lot, and the combat is fun, but I don't really dig the level designs that much, and the game also likes to lock you in arena style rooms very often until you fight off a few waves of enemies, which gets old after a while. I'd still recommend most people to at least check this game out though.