Mechin' Hell

Another thing I did last weekend was finally succeeding in getting an old game working: MechWarrior 2!

I recall in the mid-nineties that this game was one of the big ones: Everyone played it and those who did still have fond memories of it. I however missed out on it and it's only in the last coupla years that I finally got a copy (the Titanium Trilogy no less!). But boy has it been a bitch to get working.

Yet even if I managed to finally get Mechwarrior 2 working it is not without it's troubles: the 3dfx, which was the major promise behind the Titanium Trilogy, isn't working out too well and as a result much of the graphics look hideous.

Oh if ever there was a game to get a HD revamp......

Wii are no longer here any more

This weekend I went to a quiz night. Whilst my team didn't win i did however score a minor victory by answering a tricky spot question. And what did I get for my effort? An envelope of gaming vouchers! Yep, everytime I convince myself I have too many games and I should cease getting more, something comes along that chnages that perception around.

Anyway, the vouchers themselves were for Facebook games, Club Penguin and the Wii. And of course it was the latter that had the greatest sway for me - so I fired up my Wii and went to check it out.

But it must be said: it was damn weird coming back to the Wii in this late hour - when Nintendo have moved on and are now focusing their attention on the Wii-U. The Nintendo Channel is dead and whilst the the Marketplace is still there it is frozen in time - and looks to remain that way. Indeed, in the case of the latter, it is bizarre to see something I spent a lot of time using is now kinda non-existent.
However I suppose that is the toll that time takes, when things are discarded by the wayside by the passage of time. And gaming technology may well be the worst offender seeing how quickly the technology moves and how quickly things are forgotten and subsequently claimed forever. True we be slowing down somewhat with the seventh generation of consoles being the longest yet but in the case of the Wii marketplace, it is weird to see so many games on offer but the audience has since stopped caring.
It is indeed a thought of whether the Marketplace screen will still look the same five or even ten years from how...

I think I'm a clone now

Rithendal meets a double:

 Seems that with so many people playing World of Warcraft, there will be SOMEONE that has an avatar looking very much like yours.

Take the Controls

Seems Homeworld isn’t the only IP getting a new lease of life: Stardock Entertainment has picked up Star Control for a revamp. Inspired by the success of the recent XCom reboot, Stardock wants to reboot Star Control and is even looking to draft some of the original development team in for the job.

I assume that this will be a reboot of Star Control 2 – for the original game was a ‘space battle’ game whilst its sequel builds upon the previous game incredibly (there was a Star Control 3 but people choose not to talk about that one….). I myself am delighted by this news I’ve been playing Star Control 2 a lot this year and found it much to my liking. True the game is already available for free online in the form of the Ur-Quan Masters, but if this reboot generates new interest in this classic then I’m all for it (It’s been a long time coming too).

In fact it would be interesting to see how this reboot stands up, when everyone’s been busy playing Mass Effect. Sure the element of space exploration may invite comparisons but whereas Mass Effect is an action RPG built around a central character, Star Control 2 is more about building a fleet, finding locales to visit, ship combat and building relations with other alien races so they’ll join your cause.
Mind you considering how many goofy alien races populate the Star Control 2 universe, one can only wonder how they’d work in a 7th/8th generation game.

We're on our way home

I heard it through the grapevine that Gearbox, having purchased the license to the Homeworld series, are now going to release new versions of Homeworld 1 and 2 - and in HD new less.

My response?

YES!

Getcha motor runnin'

Because WoW graphical glitches never cease to be amusing, may I present this - Rithendal being dragged around on the head:

Si Amiga

As established previously in this blog I spent much of the nineties being the proud owner of a Commodore Amga 1200. Of course, the word ‘proud’ is indeed an understatement as the mid –to-late nineties were not a kind time to the venerable company known as Commodore.  At the time, everyone had PCs and a wider, and better, selection of games. I had a lot of trouble trying to find something that would work on my machine, let alone something decent, and I was made a laughing stock in amongst my classmates at school. As is often the case with gaming, one need to pick a tribe and hope it isn’t the wrong one because if it is the wrong one you’re going to be up shit creek. And as it so happened, I picked a wrong time to be an Amiga owner – I can only wonder how my brother managed to persuade my father to shell out for an Amiga 1200.

Still I had some good times using my Amiga – I remember blowing an entire summer to complete Soccer Kid and I’ve since regretted nothing. I got into Worms via the Amiga and I even tried my hand at animation with the Amiga. I did try to keep abreast with developments via magazines but much of the time spent there was looking at games that looked ace but being forever out of reach – and settling with demos that didn’t do enough to fill the void. Still, I’ve had a soft spot for the Amiga ever since.
Now I recently received the news that Amiga Games Inc has been bought out along with the rights to over 300 games. The purchaser, the Writers Group Film Corp, now has plans to rerelease these titles to modern platforms.

Well this is good news for me on multiple fronts. It is good news as a former Amiga loyalist that interest in the Amiga is still being maintained. It is good news as an advocate for gaming preservation as the games in question are being preserved and not claimed by the march of time. But it is especially good news as someone who missed out on playing many of these games the first time around. As stated above, I never played many of the games that were available at the time and could only gawk at screenshots in magazines (of course some of the games I wanted to play from that era have now been obtained through Steam and GoG). As such I can list many games I’d like to try my hand at: Ruff N’Tumble, Chaos Engine, Bubble and Squeak, Valhalla, Final Odyssey, Alien Breed, Dragon Stone, Shadow of the Beast, Super Stardust, and Shadow Fighter among others.

Of course, it is unclear at this stage which games will be given the greenlight for release –it is entirely possible that the games released will be the crummy ones instead of the much more worthy titles mentioned above. That being said, don’t mess this up Writers Group Film Corp!

Two's Company and Three's a Crowd

An age-old debate: 2d platformers or 3d platformers?

Honestly this question isn’t something I really need to think about: 2d all the way. I grew up with eight bit and 16 bit games and, as far as I’m concerned, they did the job nicely and still do today.

My experience with 3d platformers has been varied: I recall the first time I played Super Mario 64 on the N64 and, having enjoyed both Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros 3, experiencing some kind of culture shock: I had no idea what I was supposed to do with Mario or where I was supposed to go. Consequently much of my time in Super Mario 64 was spent running around like a headless chook. Latter still I found many 3d platformers seemed unclear as to not only where to go but how to get there: At times my experience with 3d platformers was awash with difficulty in distinguishing what was a ledge and what was scenery – And anyone who tells me they haven’t slipped up a complicated jumping onto  something they thought they could hang onto is a liar.
I also didn’t appreciate the fact that much the graphics looked really ugly – a fact not helped years later as many fifth generation games have not aged well in the graphics department.  And matters were not helped by a wonky camera that seemed to refuse to go where the player wanted it to.

And that pretty much sums up my feelings towards 3d platformers: Unclear paths, hideous graphics and a resentful camera. Major problems that, to me, was more than enough as a deal-breaker. And having come from the 16-bit era, these flaws came across as being a major regressive step – why try and ruin that which was working so well already? Indeed, these problems were, and still remain, the reasons why I loved 3d platforms: The screen moved with the PC, they looked nice (some even hold up really well today) and it was always clear where the player was meant to go (not to mention the thrill of finding new paths to get to the exit). That and they were tremendous fun to play.

Now that’s not to say that I’ve found 3d platformers that I’ve enjoyed – Prince of Persia Sands of Time comes to mind – but that had a great narrative and a fun time-rewind mechanic to back it up. In fact I’ve found that when a 3d platformer is offering something else, I will latch onto the ‘something else’ and lo and behold, I find I can really enjoy the game itself (ie Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, NiGHTS and God of War).

As for the 2d platformers, I love them and I still do. And I suspect I’ll still be enjoying them ten years from now. I still finding some being made today (Eversion anyone?) and they are still as compelling as ever. I think that is how I feel about the conflict between 2d and 3d – I’ve become so accustomed on 2d so for 3d to grab my attention it had better offer something else on top.

Your move 3d platformers

Come Out and Play

So with a new Nintendo console comes the announcement that a new iteration of the Super Smash Brothers is on it's way.

The Super Smash Bros series and I have something of a weird history. I became aware of the series through the first title on the N64 - but the first game I played in the series is Melee. But I could not get into it: I've played many fighting games and enjoyed them - even if I've been relying on the time and tested tactic of button mashing. But the Super Smash bros is a series that will have none of that: As such I was both flattened time and time again and puzzled by how the game works (how many hits can this asshole take?! Oh so being knocked out is instant death....). As such it's kind of embarrassing for me to see people who have every character worked out and mop the floor with me.
Still I did end up obtaining Brawl for my Wii and whilst I did have a hard time getting into the swing of things, I did enjoy it (even if I'm no more wiser as to what the hell I'm doing). In addition I also acquired the original Super Smash Bros from the Virtual Console but somehow it didn't really make an impression on me.
Yet somehow it is kind of telling that Brawl, the maligned of the series, is the one that did indeed make a connection with me....

Anywho, with the latest Super Smash Bros, more and more cast members are being teased out as 2014 draws nearer. Yet this is coming in the wake of Brawl which featured a large character roster and reports are indicting that said roster will be trimmed of the less unique characters for the new game. Reports also indicate that deciding which characters get the flick is not a decision made easily.
Personally I'm in two minds over this: On one hand the shortened roster will be easier to keep track of certain faces and remove any duplicate characters. But on the other hand I've used each and every character in Brawl and I don't mind them (except maybe Wario) so somehow having a familiar face been given the boot would be disarming to say the least.
So far we have mainstays Mario, Link, Donkey Kong, Samus, Kirby, Fox and Pikachu. Bowser, Pit and Olimar are also making a return. But in the terms of newcomers we have Mega Man, Villager and Wii Fit Trainer - the latter of course being an odd choice.

Still this is but the early stage - what more will eventuate between now and the release date would be interesting to say the least...

We will fight to the very last man

Here's a slice of Australian Bogan rock from the early eighties:

The reason I'm posting this here is becuase I can very easily imagine a whole lot of Orcs, Trolls, Tauren, Blood Elves and Goblins (and Pandarians) all rocking out to this.
It may seem odd to you, the reader, but this to me sounds very much like a Horde song - okay sure none of the Horde races are actually friends with each other but this sounds like one great big rallying call

And the fact I can't imagine any of the Alliance races singing this is better still.

At the Movies

Some random thoughts about Movie Tie-in games:

Yes we all know about these: Shoddy games that were thrown together in a short space of time with no thought beyond simple brand recognition. They are despised by gamers everywhere and treated with nothing but absolute contempt for their purpose and utter shamelessness in proclaiming it.

I find the contempt for movie-tie-in games interesting because I grew up in the era of the Commodore 64. There were certainly a lot of movie-tie-in games there but some of them were creative, interesting and fun to play. Okay so maybe back then the developers had a far inferior platform to work with (compared to now) but it's interesting to see some movie-tie-in games where effort was being put into and not being just a quick cash grab.

Here's some worthy of note:

Batman.
It follows the plot of the original Tim Burton movie closely and does so with different styles of gameplay. The music's pretty good too (or at least for a c64 SID chip)

Top Gun
Here's a clever use of a film license: A split screen dogfight between enemy jets! And the absence of Tom Cruise is even better!

Platoon
An odd choice for a film license to be sure but it works here. Somehow.
Still the music is pretty good

Ultimately though, these are relics from an age long gone. Now, the reason why movie-tie-in games are such a damning sight is that the developers have a very limited amount of time to deliver upon a brand. Is it therefore any wonder why many of these movie-tie-in games come across as being half-arsed? Of course there is only one movie-tie-in game that is highly regarded (both then and now) and that's Goldeneye 007 on the N64. But even that a) had something of it's own say b) was the product of a long time in development even well beyond the movie's original year of release and c) really something revolutionary hiding behind the guise of brand recognition. And Goldeneye 007 turned out to be both a massive hit and a revolution in console FPS. So what does that success represent for movie-tie-in games? One in a hundred? One in five hundred? Lightening in a bottle?

Still is there any hope for movie-tie-in games to recover from this stigmata and somehow be taken seriously? Probably not but ina way I am hopeful. It would be nice to have a movie-tie-in game to be both recognised as brilliant and not Goldeneye 007

Shut up and Play the Game

I've been traversing through Planescape Torment in recent weeks and, whilst I haven't got far, the game itself is proving to be engaging. It's making me pay attention to the dialogue and my journal - where I've previously skipped over in other games - so that must account for something.

But somehow I can see a problem: The writing may be top-notch but the combat is kinda dull. It is more or less like thwacking people over the head than actual life-threatening combat. If anything, the lame combat somehow makes the many kills The Nameless One racked up seem difficult to swallow.
Now that I think of it, the combat seems more like an afterthought, behind the massive effort gone into the writing. I heard that it is possible to talk your way out of certain situations and, true or not, it suggests that maybe the combat wasn't the intent of the game.

But strangely, a decade plus on, Planescape Torment is still a highly regarded game, beloved by fans and critics and still acknowledged as one of the finest games ever made. This makes an interesting point considering the many games that have been condemned for having too much story and not enough game. Metal Gear Solid 4 and Final Fantasy 13 have both copped it for trying to tell a story whilst involving the player as little as possible. And yet we praise games that do the same thing: To the Moon requires the player to do little more then push the protagonists forward in the narrative and yet it's hailed as having an emotional effect on the player. Indeed, you could make the same argument for Planescape in that for the eternal search of finding more and more about the Nameless One and recovering his memories, all the player is doing is pushing him from one revelation to another.

So how much can a story-strong/gameplay-weak get away with it? Such games have had a rancid reputation throughout gaming history (Sega CD anyone?) so how can a game like To the Moon can do the same thing and still be highly regarded? I guess it all comes down to the story: it must be compelling and and must require at least some involvement with the player. Because, unlike a book or a movie, the medium of gaming is unique in that requires participation from the audience. So it would seem a story-strong/gameplay-weak game can succeed if the story was engaging enough and the involvement from the player is clearly defined.

But to have uninspiring combat in an RPG is problematic. Granted it is nearly a prerequisite for modern RPGs to have a damn good story but how many RPGs have managed to achieve that balance between engaging story and engaging gameplay? Mass Effect? Jade Empire?

Still this is but the first few steps into the world of Planescape Torment. i have yet to leave Sigil so whether or not things will get better has yet to be seen....

Wolfborn

Let me tell your a story children: In 1981 there was a game released called Castle Wolfenstein. The brainchild of a chap called Silas Warner, the player controlled a character trapped in a Nazi fortress and had to both obtain plans for a major operation and find his way out.
In retrospect, Castle Wolfenstein is a pioneer for the stealth genre featuring picking locking chests for gear, encouraging players to avoid patrols and frisking guards for ammo. It also featured randomly generated castles that may change with difficulty depending on the player's rank and past successes.

Castle Wolfenstein may not be as well known as other pioneering games of the era (but then again who does acknowledge such titles?) but it did have it's fans: Some of them being from a team called id Software who were inspired by Castle Wolfenstein to make their own game - even to the point where they contacted Warner and asked to use the title of Wolfenstein.

 The reason I'm talking about this is that I'd like to see a stealth game set in World War II. We pretty much have the stealth genre perfected so may make for an interesting concept to see a stealth game set in a different setting (y'know somewhere between Thief and Metal Gear Solid). Sure MGS3 did go for a World War 2 setting but I'd certainly like to see one where involves breaking into enemy buildings and avoiding detection.
In short I'd like to see a remake of Castle Wolfenstein - because the presence of another shooter, as the trailer for the new Wolfenstein New Order game indicates, is just downright depressing.

Hungry like the wolf

This weekend I’ve been playing Wolfenstein 3d. Yep, the original and still the best. True the shooter genre may have had major changes in the wake of Half Life and Deus Ex but honestly? There still exists and want to just switch one’s mind off, garb the biggest gun you can think of and mow down anything dumb enough to stand in your way. And that’s a need Wolf3d fulfills nicely. It may be twenty one years old but it’s appeal still stands strong.

Okay sure it’s odd to walk about the most incoherently designed stronghold(s) imaginable, sure there are enough soldiers to invade an entire country and there’s a stupidly large amount of gold stashed in the bases, but I don’t care. I’m willing to tolerate the dated graphics and the whole cheesy dialogue (“Spion!”,”Mein leben!”). If anything, there is a certain charm to the graphics as it’s hilarious to see the body count of an intense bout of shooting:

If anything, get past the realism and the hyper-serious nature of shooters and all is left is the desire just to shoot so many dudes with a chain gun. I could say they don’t make ’em like they used to but you know what? They don’t