R.I.P. Chris Squire
Monday, June 29, 2015
Friday, June 26, 2015
Change the Script
In recent months I've come across a pair of interesting fan-edit movies: Firstly, there's the Tolkien edit of the Hobbit which merges all three Hobbit movies into the one feature and keeps it in line with the original text. And then there is a Phantom Edit of the Star Wars prequel trilogy that, again, knocks three movies down into a single feature and subsequently rewrites the script into something actually likeable.
I have to admire the dedication of the editors behind these edits: they have taken an incoherent narrative and worked them into something manageable, even likeable.
So how soon before someone does the same to games?
I suppose it isn't much of a stretch imagining someone modding certain games and reworking the narrative. This is largely due to a) the edited movies exemplified above showed that there are people willing to correct someone else's mistakes and b) the continuing existence of modding communities.
Personally I would like to see someone take the script of Final Fantasy VIII and made the narrative comprehensible. And populate it with likable characters.
And while we're at it, how about rewriting the narrative of Final Fantasy IX and make the rest of game maintain the pace set by the first disc?
I have to admire the dedication of the editors behind these edits: they have taken an incoherent narrative and worked them into something manageable, even likeable.
So how soon before someone does the same to games?
I suppose it isn't much of a stretch imagining someone modding certain games and reworking the narrative. This is largely due to a) the edited movies exemplified above showed that there are people willing to correct someone else's mistakes and b) the continuing existence of modding communities.
Personally I would like to see someone take the script of Final Fantasy VIII and made the narrative comprehensible. And populate it with likable characters.
And while we're at it, how about rewriting the narrative of Final Fantasy IX and make the rest of game maintain the pace set by the first disc?
Monday, June 22, 2015
The Return of Personal Best
And here we are at post no.700! Yeah I don't know how on earth I've managed to last for so long in this blog either. I guess I could write it down as a case of having plenty to say about a topic I'm keen on but I think it's more a case of being too dumb to quit.
So for post no.700, I thought I might revisit the case of my Personal Best. It seems a natural choice for as years go on, our opinions change and our interests tend to wander into new areas. After all, what I liked in 2012, doesn't necessarily mean I will feel the same way about it in 2015.
And if anyone wants to compare the previous list, go here
Anyway, enough waffling, lets get into the new list!
So for post no.700, I thought I might revisit the case of my Personal Best. It seems a natural choice for as years go on, our opinions change and our interests tend to wander into new areas. After all, what I liked in 2012, doesn't necessarily mean I will feel the same way about it in 2015.
And if anyone wants to compare the previous list, go here
Anyway, enough waffling, lets get into the new list!
- Ico
- Metal Gear Solid
- Baldur's Gate 2
- Mass Effect 2
- Red Dead Redemption
- Sid Meier's Civilization 2
- Secret of Mana
- Planescape: Torment
- Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past
- Super Metroid
- Final Fantasy 6
- Shadow of the Colossus
- Super Mario World
- World of Warcraft
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
- Starcraft
- Rock Band 2
- Sid Meier's Pirates!
- Spec Ops: the Line
- Heroes of Might and Magic 2
- Super Mario Bros. 3
- Skies of Arcadia
- The Stanley Parable
- Resident Evil 4
- Shining Force 2
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Super Mario Bros.
- Pharoah
- To the Moon
- Okami
- Phantasy Star 4
- Bastion
- Pool of Radiance
- Alien vs Predator arcade
- Metal Slug
- Dragon Age Origins
- Bioshock
- Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic
- Command and Conquer: Red Alert
- Last Ninja 2
- Vendetta
- Doom
- Ogre Battle 64
- Final Fantasy 10
- Bubble Bobble
- Actraiser
- The Dig
- Final Fantasy 7
- Final Fantasy9
- God of War
- Raiden 2
- The Chaos Engine
- Cannon Fodder
- Soul Calibur 3
- Burnout 3
Friday, June 19, 2015
The Big E3
So E3 2015 has come and gone, leaving a trail of big announcements, revelations and fan-boys creaming their pants in it's wake. Whilst there are significant announcements to discuss (and believe you me we will be discussing them), today we focus on one in particular.
That being that Microsoft has finally caved in and given the Xbone backward compatibility. I suppose it's better late than never but one can't shake the feeling that this is an act of a company not getting the numbers they are expecting.
Me? My love affair with Xbox pretty much ended with the 360 - which resulted in even more time spent on the PC. So, whilst I can imagine this act being the equivalent of the Xbox crawling back,it does however suddenly make the Xbox enticing again - even when the Xbone has done little to pique my interest.
Still, I can't help but think that my vowing off Xbox and PlayStation caught the attention of a thought van that drove past my house and which subsequently inspired action to be taken...
That being that Microsoft has finally caved in and given the Xbone backward compatibility. I suppose it's better late than never but one can't shake the feeling that this is an act of a company not getting the numbers they are expecting.
Me? My love affair with Xbox pretty much ended with the 360 - which resulted in even more time spent on the PC. So, whilst I can imagine this act being the equivalent of the Xbox crawling back,it does however suddenly make the Xbox enticing again - even when the Xbone has done little to pique my interest.
Still, I can't help but think that my vowing off Xbox and PlayStation caught the attention of a thought van that drove past my house and which subsequently inspired action to be taken...
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Guardians of the Galaxy
Big news has emerged with the announcement that the Last Guardian is set for release in 2016. This has come after years of delays and confusion.
And we have a video to go with it:
Make no mistake, that I'm a big fan of Team Ico's (two) games and this video is interesting from that perspective: Here, we have shades of Ico with a protagonist wandering through a crumbling fortress with a companion. And, at the same time, we see the monster-climbing mechanic lifted straight from Shadow of the Colossus.
Considering that Shadow of the Colossus was a much bigger seller than Ico, I suppose it would be unsurprising for Team Ico to go back and revisit that territory. But such a prospect mirrors the comparisons I found between System Shock 2 and Bisohock: It's the same game but with a different coat of paint. Whilst the Griffon-esque creature seems a far more effective companion than Yorda, one can't help but think that perhaps Team Ico may be running short of ideas - especially considering the long gestation time this game has been in.
But, of course, all of this is speculative: It's too early to call on this game when it has yet to be released.
If anything the real question here is: Could the Last Guardian be enough to sway me back to Sony? Only time will tell.....
And we have a video to go with it:
Original video located here. Accessed 17th June 2015
Make no mistake, that I'm a big fan of Team Ico's (two) games and this video is interesting from that perspective: Here, we have shades of Ico with a protagonist wandering through a crumbling fortress with a companion. And, at the same time, we see the monster-climbing mechanic lifted straight from Shadow of the Colossus.
Considering that Shadow of the Colossus was a much bigger seller than Ico, I suppose it would be unsurprising for Team Ico to go back and revisit that territory. But such a prospect mirrors the comparisons I found between System Shock 2 and Bisohock: It's the same game but with a different coat of paint. Whilst the Griffon-esque creature seems a far more effective companion than Yorda, one can't help but think that perhaps Team Ico may be running short of ideas - especially considering the long gestation time this game has been in.
But, of course, all of this is speculative: It's too early to call on this game when it has yet to be released.
If anything the real question here is: Could the Last Guardian be enough to sway me back to Sony? Only time will tell.....
Monday, June 8, 2015
System of a Down
Another game has been cast down from my Hall of Shame (and the first for 2015 too!). Goodbye System Shock 2!
Man oh man, has this game got a reputation and a half: the father of Bioshock, a complete reinvention (alongside Deus Ex) of the First Person Shooter genre, one of the scariest games ever made, one of the greatest villains ever conceived in gaming history.
And you know what? In this case the reputation is justified.
Okay so I may have been using a heavily modded version of the game, that resulted in updated graphics, reworked environments and high level textures but even such modifications can;t take away that this is a game dripping in atmosphere. There is real tension with danger lurking around every corner, there is dread invoked with the sound design and there is a real sense that this is survival horror done right (ie you're all alone and no one else can jump you & nick your gear).
However whilst System Shock 2 may be pushing sixteen years, it still stands as one of the toughest games I've played. Never mind the careful selection of skill allotment (it's been well-established that this game is unforgiving to a point that if you chose the wrong skills, you may find yourself unable to complete the game), I had to contend with weapon degradation, constant threats, never having enough ammo, and dying over and over again. Even the boss fight with the Many was a real nightmare - one that somehow made the eventual confrontation with SHODAN seem tame by comparison. That being said, I think I can now understand why Bioshock was made easier - and may have contributed to greater sales. Still, beating any tough game is certainly an achievement and that certainly was the case here.
Not much else except to say that System Shock 2 is a great game. And it is finally great to play it when it was lost in the legal limbo for so long.
Now, about No One Lives Forever....
Man oh man, has this game got a reputation and a half: the father of Bioshock, a complete reinvention (alongside Deus Ex) of the First Person Shooter genre, one of the scariest games ever made, one of the greatest villains ever conceived in gaming history.
And you know what? In this case the reputation is justified.
Okay so I may have been using a heavily modded version of the game, that resulted in updated graphics, reworked environments and high level textures but even such modifications can;t take away that this is a game dripping in atmosphere. There is real tension with danger lurking around every corner, there is dread invoked with the sound design and there is a real sense that this is survival horror done right (ie you're all alone and no one else can jump you & nick your gear).
However whilst System Shock 2 may be pushing sixteen years, it still stands as one of the toughest games I've played. Never mind the careful selection of skill allotment (it's been well-established that this game is unforgiving to a point that if you chose the wrong skills, you may find yourself unable to complete the game), I had to contend with weapon degradation, constant threats, never having enough ammo, and dying over and over again. Even the boss fight with the Many was a real nightmare - one that somehow made the eventual confrontation with SHODAN seem tame by comparison. That being said, I think I can now understand why Bioshock was made easier - and may have contributed to greater sales. Still, beating any tough game is certainly an achievement and that certainly was the case here.
Not much else except to say that System Shock 2 is a great game. And it is finally great to play it when it was lost in the legal limbo for so long.
Now, about No One Lives Forever....
Friday, June 5, 2015
The System is Down
Lately I've been playing a lot of System Shock 2.
This is an interesting game to approach on two fronts: Firstly it has a fearsome reputation in that is home to one of the greatest gaming villains (I am of course referring to SHODAN). And secondly, this is game I have come to to having played Bioshock, a game that has been made abundantly clear that it is the successor to System Shock 2.
It is that notion of System Shock 2 being a predecessor to Bioshock that is, to me, inescapable. I see so many similarities that it isn't funny. The weapons are the same, items are obtained via vending machines, there are turrets and security cameras everywhere, there are chambers that resurrect the player when they die, health and power-ups are provided via syringes, there's characters from both games running parallel to each other, there's hacking, weapon upgrades, cybermodules are ADAM, and Psionics fill in for plasmids.
Indeed, when comparing the two, one can't shake the feeling that Bioshock is just System Shock 2 with a new coat of paint (along with a steampunk aesthetic). And even then System Shock 2 started life as a completely different game before it was attached to the System Shock franchise for the sake of pushing sales.
Such is the similarities that I wonder if this is what gaming is going to be: a mere case of dusting off an old game and giving it a new coat of paint. I suppose that may make for an interesting solution to games that are lost to time and unable to played any more *coughPanzerDragoonSagacough* but at the same time, it does suggest that gaming progression is facing something of a standstill. I will concede that revamping an old game may be a way buck the system, generate interest in the father title and give new IP a fighting chance. But it makes me wonder how many people played Bioshock and then went to Steam to check out this System Shock 2 game....
This is an interesting game to approach on two fronts: Firstly it has a fearsome reputation in that is home to one of the greatest gaming villains (I am of course referring to SHODAN). And secondly, this is game I have come to to having played Bioshock, a game that has been made abundantly clear that it is the successor to System Shock 2.
It is that notion of System Shock 2 being a predecessor to Bioshock that is, to me, inescapable. I see so many similarities that it isn't funny. The weapons are the same, items are obtained via vending machines, there are turrets and security cameras everywhere, there are chambers that resurrect the player when they die, health and power-ups are provided via syringes, there's characters from both games running parallel to each other, there's hacking, weapon upgrades, cybermodules are ADAM, and Psionics fill in for plasmids.
Indeed, when comparing the two, one can't shake the feeling that Bioshock is just System Shock 2 with a new coat of paint (along with a steampunk aesthetic). And even then System Shock 2 started life as a completely different game before it was attached to the System Shock franchise for the sake of pushing sales.
Such is the similarities that I wonder if this is what gaming is going to be: a mere case of dusting off an old game and giving it a new coat of paint. I suppose that may make for an interesting solution to games that are lost to time and unable to played any more *coughPanzerDragoonSagacough* but at the same time, it does suggest that gaming progression is facing something of a standstill. I will concede that revamping an old game may be a way buck the system, generate interest in the father title and give new IP a fighting chance. But it makes me wonder how many people played Bioshock and then went to Steam to check out this System Shock 2 game....
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