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I haven't been playing very much in the way of games this past week. Part of it is because I upgraded from a basic cell to an Android phone and the rest is lack of sleep due to my daughter's illness. I've spent a lot of time watching Netflix and Youtube (Gamecenter CX and Crab's videos) while sitting in a rocking chair. And thinking.
I want this to sound not like a confessional but a realization: I may have been neglecting my retro roots. I have been neglecting my retro roots. This came to me in the forums when Apollo.Boy kept telling me how much better older games look on a good CRT rather than an LCD. While I was trying to think of another way of reinforcing my point I began to wonder: when was the last time I really enjoyed playing a retro game on an old television. When was the last time I enjoyed playing a retro game at all? I had no idea. Sure, I've playing a lot of games (some of them old), but I was looking more at my backlog as a whole then as individual games. I was playing my games with the goal of completion, not enjoyment. This was the essence of my problem with Stellar-Fire, I think.
In the spirit of this I will be republishing two of my earlier articles, neither which appeared on RF Generation (that I can tell). I will also be once again be revamping the way I choose games to play. From now on I will choose both a game that closer fits with the overall spirit at RFG as well as a game that is more in character with, well, me.
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Post Mortem
GTA: Episodes from Liberty City: I haven't finished these games yet, but yet I have. Let me explain. Because of the content I cannot play these games around my children I am limited to after they are asleep, which basically means that I am playing about two missions a night. I am satisfied with this, so I feel that I can put these games on the Post Mortem list and walk away. Anyways, I think I have more pressing issues to confront.
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Games For This Week
Stellar-Fire
Platform: Sega CD
Purchase Date: 1998
Cost: $1.00
Despite what I wrote at the beginning of this article, I still firmly believe this is not a good game in any capacity. Regardless, I shall strive forth. I've found a somewhat decent recorder (Hypercam 2), but I am having some sound issues. Below you will find one of my earlier experiments with Hypercam (as well as Stellar-Fire). Sorry about the fumbling sound.
The goal for each level is to collect a certain number of crystals scattered about the landscape while fighting and avoiding enemies at every turn and finally facing a boss. The problem is that the crystals are scattered in a very non-linear pattern that only gets more spread out with every level, eventually bordering on the ridiculous. To add to the difficulty there is no compass, so you are forced to rely on the background landscape. Very interesting. If I can ever beat this game I plan on writing a FAQ.
Title: Super Mario Brothers
Platform: NES
Purchase Date:2002
Cost: $1.36
Like many of you, this was the first game I ever played on the NES. I first played back in 1987 after a friend, who spent many days mowing lawns and selling rebuilt bicycles, purchased one. Initially I sucked quite a bit at this game, despite my arcade experience. I kept dying at the elevators in World 1-2. Later when I received an NES for Christmas I was able to get better, but only a bit as I also received The Legend of Zelda as well.
I've never actually beaten this game. Did I say that already? I've seem most of the game, but for some reason I never saw it to the end. Very strange, though I have been assured by a friend that this is actually pretty common. I am reluctant to believe him, but I guess it could be true.
While I will be challenging this game on my NES, I might do a playthrough on an emulator so I can record it.
Title: Boku No Natsuyasumi 4 (My Summer Vacation 4)
Platform: PSP
Purchase Date: 4/2011
Cost: $45
The Boku No Natsuyasumi series revolves around a boy (Boku?) visiting relatives during summer vacation in Japan. The game is considered very nostalgic and features many games and activities Japanese men would have enjoyed during their childhood in the eighties (such as bug collecting, beetle-fighting, and toy collecting). There is a story, but since I don't understand Japanese I don't know it, though I've been told that the series is perfect for those wishing to learn to read Japanese.
I've never tried to beat the game, but instead just putter around the island, collecting things, sticking my nose into everything, and enjoying the atmosphere of nostalgia the game creates (even though I don't have a cultural reference for it).
Will there ever be a game about a nerdy kid in the eighties as he trolls around the woods and roadside looking for returnable bottles so he can play arcade games at the laundry-mat and 7-11? I sure hope so. Then again, there is always Shenmue.
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In The Bag For 2012
Alan Wake - 1/25
Dead Space 2 - 2/4
Portal 2 - 2/10
Enslaved - 2/17
I kind of regret reposting my first Backlog Gamer article, so click here for the second one if you want to read it.
Well, my posts are getting closer to the beginning of the week. At this rate I'll be posting on day one by the middle of next month. All right me!
As I stated last week, when I first conceived this I thought it would be best to show some sport and only pick games randomly. I failed miserably when the first group of games turned out to be some of the most highly rated recently released games in my collection. However, this week I decided to play by the rules and pick randomly. Will I be rewarded for my honesty, or will I feel the flames of redemption?
Post Mortem
Portal 2: Wow. I mean, wow. The only way I think I can express myself properly is to directly beam the information to your brain in the pure emotional content (so as to not spoil the nice bits). Ready? Errrrrm. Got it? Yeah, what did I tell you! Awesome, right?
Games List For This Week
Game 1: Enslaved
Game 2: Stellar-Fire
Game 3: Kyle's Quest 2
Title: Enslaved
Platform: Xbox 360
Purchase Date: 9/29/11
Cost: $9.99
At last, Enslaved finally gets the attention it deserves. I know that in the past I seemed a little "blah" on it, stating that it seemed a little average and maybe generic. I would now like to formally take this back. Sure, in some cases the action can be a bit predictable (I'm speaking specifically of the general direction of the action, not the action itself), but Enslaved has sunk its claws into me, and not just the story this time: The characters, action , along with the story are equally as important to my experience. I especially enjoy how, for all his supposed strength, Monkey is often completely outmatched by the mechs in combat (even against the "weaker" ones) and is forced to rely almost exclusively on his unmatched agility.
If I reviewed games I would give this game a solid B as long as it holds out to the end.
Title: Stellar-Fire
Platform: Sega CD
Purchase Date: 1998
Cost: $1.00
The funny thing is that I thought for sure that most of the games I randomly picked would end up being PC or NES games, which makes sense as those platforms make up over 26% and 20% of my collection (respectively). In the end I think I had to hit the random button three times. The first two were either demos or games I'd already beaten, and on the third Stellar-Fire popped up. I have to admit I am rather nervous. I have never played this game, not even to test. I purchased all of my Sega CD games in a lot, and I was only really interested in the Working Designs games that came with it.
Playing this game might prove a little harder, as my Sega CD was acting "weird" the last time I booted it up. Therefore, I will use my laptop as an emulator, which should be interesting at the very least.
Title: Kyle's Quest 2
Platform: iOS
Purchase Date: N/A
Cost: N/A
Once upon a time there was a group of devices called PDAs. While they were mainly for organizational and productivity purposes, it turned out that people wanted to also play games. Many of these games were fun, but most sucked. A game that didn't suck on this platform was a little series called Kyle's Quest. At heart modeled after 8-bit role playing games, this two Kyle's Quest games featured Japanese-inspired big-head characters but with a nice Western twist: you could make your own adventures. While this sort of control didn't appeal to everyone, it wasn't long before there were a ton of great adventures to play. While the games weren't free (very little quality titles were free on PDAs) the adventures were, meaning that one could easily make the $14.99 price tags a non-issue.
Kyle's Quest 2 (and the innumerable downloads for it) provided me many hours of entertainment in a very dark part of my life. Because of this I didn't expect to care much when I found this game in the iOS App Store (just thinking about it brought back memories of hospital-sterility) for free, but I was surprised. Though the game has lost the ability to load player made levels from the Internet, there are still twenty different games loaded in, and since many of them are short, they fit the aesthetics of a mobile platform.
I don't see myself deleting this game on Monday as I have done with the previous weeks "Game 3" title.
In The Bag For 2012
Alan Wake - 1/25
Dead Space 2 - 2/4
Portal 2 - 2/10
NOTE: I'm reposting this to provide context (I plan on doing this every week), though I didn't include the photos. For those that care, the original post can be viewed, complete and intact, on my blog.
Up until a month ago, I hadn't played more than an hour of videogames in more than four years. Full-time School, that great and massive force, took all of my free time. Like a breastfeeding mother of triplets, I just didn't have any time for anything but the necessities (that being family, school, and work).
That has ended. From this moment on (or until I get too bored with it), I'm going to burn my gaming-candle at both ends. I will have to take occasional breaks for continuing education (the bane/boon of the IT industry), but for the most part every second of extra time that is not used to chip away at my large honey-do list will be spent working on my massive videogame backlog.
Enter the Backlog Gamer. I know, the name is lame. It's all I have at the moment, and will likely change in the near future.
I finished the first game on the list, Alan Wake, before I decided to write this series of articles. Because of that I will make a few comments on it then banish it to the "In The Bag" completion list and speak of it no more! Suffice to say that it is a great game that uses (but does not overuse) a light/darkness element as well as a spoken narrative by Alan Wake himself. I loved the combat, even though I heard endless bitching from reviews and other gamers about it. I plan on at some point purchasing the two DLC packs for it and maybe even making it a yearly or bi-yearly play.
Games List For This Week
Dead Space 2
Enslaved
Dig-N-Rig
Title: Dead Space 2
Platform: Steam (on PC)
Purchase Date: 1/1/12
Cost: $9.99
I am almost done with this game (I think). I could be wrong I guess, as I was sure I had reached the ending about three times now. I was surprised by the strategy required to play this game. Sure, you might be able to play the game by blasting everything in sight, but I wasn't able to. It took longer than I care to admit that this game is as much a strategy/survival-horror game as much as a third-person shooter, requiring that you spend as much time learning to use the right tool for the right necromorph encounter as possible. The story is also quite good. I especially like the way it is told, not just with cutscene footage and the audio/text logs scattered about, but also the settings and props in the rooms themselves. Some rooms will tell a story of a struggle, with mutilated corpses scattered about, while another shows whole families still on the floor next to ominous white cups.
Great game. Great buy. You should probably play it.
Title: Enslaved
Platform: Xbox 360
Purchase Date: 9/29/11
Cost: $9.99
I bought this game on a whim after hearing about someone talk about it on some gaming podcast. Overall the game is fun, but it does have some very generic gameplay progression (explore, fight, explore, learn new ability, fight, boss). I'm not a big fan of Monkey, the male protagonist, who seems as much a typical male macho-protagonist as possible. The real star of the show is the female protagonist, Trip. Her writing and acting are done in a way that conveys fear for herself, but also a great deal of empathy for Monkey, whom she enslaved. The environment, which consist of a Earth-like city overgrown by nature, is also very interesting to me.
It's not a great game so far, but the story has a hold on me, so I plan on slogging it out to the end.
Title: Dig-N-Rig
Platform: PC
Purchase Date: N/A
Cost: N/A
I downloaded this game after hearing a guest on the Giant Bombcast (it might have been Paul Barnett, though I can't remember) gush about it. The game is quite fun, if a bit on the simple side. You basically drill stuff, which creates resources, which you funnel to your home base by way of conveyor belts and lifts, then you buy new stuff, upgrade your old stuff, then dig deeper. There is an overall goal, that being to reach the core of the planet, but it may prove unattainable for some. Usually after about two hours of gameplay my drill disappears (?), so my digging activities are limited to using explosive devices.
Like I said, the game is fun, but I don't think I'll be playing this next week. On a positive note, finding this game also revealed the massive free-game vault over at Digipen (the folks who created Portal), so regardless of the outcome this game was totally worth the time.
In The Bag For 2012
Alan Wake - 1/25
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This is bombatomba's Blog.
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So I'm an odd ball. So I am usually the last to post on a blog/forum. So I only post about weird games on weird platforms. So I have a strange relationship with commas and parenthesis. So what? Hey, at least you don't have to car pool with me to work, right? So have a heart, eat a blueberry, and don't forget to drop the empties in the box on the way out. I get deposit on those. |
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