Bedtime

Brütal Legend was fantastic. I'll write more when it isn't 6:00am :)

Trades

I traded Panzer Dragoon, Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic CD, Sonic R, Street Fighter Alpha, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Virtua Fighter 2, and Virtual On (all for PC), as well as Crash Bandicoot (PSX "Greatest Hits") and Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (XBOX) toward Super Pitfall (NES), SonSon II (PC Engine), Crash Bandicoot (PSX, not "Greatest Hits"), Pitfall 3D: Beyond The Jungle (PSX), Fable The Lost Chapters (XBOX, not "Best Of Platinum Hits"), Pitfall: The Lost Expedition (XBOX), Klonoa (Wii), Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (Wii), Muramasa: the Demon Blade (Wii), Fable II Limited Collector's Edition (360), and King Of Fighters XII (360).

Oh, and I may be getting somewhere with Nintendo on this overheating Wii issue... Stay tuned.

Brütally Honest

Brütal Legend kicks ass. I love the story, the acting, the graphics, the cameos, the controls, the varied gameplay, the exploration... It feels like the natural evolution of Tim Schafer's work; from cutting-edge point-and-click adventure games; to Grim Fandango, which incorporated a more action-oriented control scheme into the adventure genre; to Psychonauts, which masterfully meshed the adventure and action genres together like no other before it; to Brütal Legend, which further expands upon adventure/action hybrid ideas with an open strategy element akin to games like Sacrifice and Overlord.

The major gripes I've heard so far have had to do with pop-in and inconsistent frame rates, navigation ('I need a mini-map', 'the waypoints may lead me into an obstacle'), and genre confusion ('you got your half-assed RTS effort in my adventure game')... But any pop-in or stuttering I've run into so far has been negligible and in no way makes anything unplayable, navigation is pretty straightforward (if you get lost, the map screen is very helpful; but like Psychonauts, exploration is a huge part of the fun to be had here), and the RTS elements are an intriguing addition to what is still primarily an action game. It seems to me like a lot of people were caught off-guard (myself included) by the heavy RTS infusion to the single-player game, as previews would have us believe that such aspects were more of a multiplayer thing... The resulting backlash seems to be one of confused criticism.

I do have some legitimate complaints though. Scene transitions can be abrupt, and trivial yet funny voice clips can get cut-off, never to be heard again. Certain aspects of the game (minor plot points, new skills, new types of enemies, stuff like that) are not fully explained, though their uses and meanings aren't exactly esoteric, so it's not the end of the world. Finally, things seem a bit easy... For example, I lost all of my men to an unexpected and unexplained environmental effect during a battle and was killed shortly thereafter, but not before reaching a checkpoint. When I respawned, I was at the checkpoint with a full complement of men; men who most certainly did not survive to reach that checkpoint with me... Regardless, Brütal Legend seems like a game worth spending some quality time with in order to savour its unique nuances and creative ideas; the rewards far outweigh any issues you may run into along the way.

So, Need For Speed ProStreet on PSP, eh? Yeah, good times. Great graphics, genuinely fun sim gameplay, lots to do, plenty of replay value... And asshole AI that has no qualms about sending you into a spin, as well as a broken garage system that doesn't let you sell old cars or get money back for downgrading... Unless I'm missing something there? Still one of the best racers on the platform, no question about it. I wonder why it seems to have been so overlooked by the press...

Finally, the e-mail server at work went down over night, and now I'm fixing it and developing a new storage strategy to better utilise our limited storage resources... Wheee!

$2!

I tracked down a copy of Brütal Legend after work yesterday (the used record store had two copies left; everywhere else in the area was sold out), but didn't get a chance to play it until this morning... Since I had to go into work, I've only played through the intro and have yet to hit the RTS aspect of the game that supposedly throws the quality of the whole experience into question...

I also noticed copies of Shining Force II (Genesis) and Super Off Road (SNES) ~$2 each at that same used record store, so I grabbed them as well. Super Off Road needed a cleaning, but I didn't notice that until I'd already tested it and popped ActRaiser back in... At which point ActRaiser wouldn't start properly, and then erased my saved progress. I only had like two more levels to go! D'ah well, I guess that just clears my schedule up a bit for Brütal Legend :)

I finally got around to sitting down with Gran Turismo and MotorStorm: Arctic Edge on PSP, and was promptly confused. Just about everyone's been talking about how pretty Gran Turismo is and how ugly MotorStorm is, and I think they got it backwards. GT runs at an amazingly high frame rate, but it ain't the prettiest game on the platform; Need For Speed: ProStreet looks way better. MotorStorm looks pretty great too, so I'm just kinda scratching my head here... Anyway, GT's a hardcore sim that takes a lot of practice to master. MotorStorm is big, dumb, visceral fun that's great in short bursts, but gets kinda repetitive if you try to do it all at once. ProStreet (quickly becoming one of my favourite racers on the PSP) is somewhere in the middle, but definitely more toward the sim side of the spectrum.

The Saga Continues

I got the other G4s cleaned-up and ready for sale, but I'm not gonna post them 'til I max-out the RAM in the dual 1GHz machine and redistribute the leftovers. I found two new low-density 512MB sticks on craigslist for $40, but they don't seem to like Macs, or at least QuickSilvers :\ I'm gonna see about swapping at one of the local surplus stores...

On a happier note, I'm pretty comfortable with the following selection of Mac software:

• Connect360
• Flip4Mac WMV
• NTFS-3G
• Perian
• Rember
• Safari
• StuffIt Expander
• Toast
• Transmission

...I think that pretty much covers my needs.

Anyway, I read a post on a message board about an old Sonic clone from Data East on the Genesis called High Seas Havoc. I don't think I'd ever heard of it before then, but it looked promising, so I checked out a nearby shop and they had a loose copy for cheap. Good times :)

My ship has come in!

I got the dual-1GHz QuickSilver 2002! $160 on craigslist! The case is a little banged-up, but otherwise, it's been great so far! I'm gonna see about selling the other two, and maybe swapping the case from one...

Anyway, on to the better news! I received the following in the mail today:

• BC Racers (32X)
• Blackthorne (32X)
• Primal Rage (32X)
• Star Trek Starfleet Academy (32X)
• T-Mek (32X)
• Toughman Contest (32X)
• Pitfall (Jaguar)
• White Men Can't Jump (Jaguar)
• Cool Cool Jam (NGPC)
• Gals Fighters (NGPC)
• Puzzle Link 2 (NGPC)
• Actraiser 2 (SNES)
• Blitz w/overlay (Vectrex)
• Cosmic Chasm w/overlay (Vectrex)
• Solar Quest (Vectrex)
• Starhawk w/overlay (Vectrex)

Can't wait to sit down with all of it... And now I only need Night Trap, Spider-Man: Web Of Fire, World Series Baseball, and WWF Wrestlemania to complete my domestic 32X collection... Such a nerd :)

Jinx

If all goes well, I'll have a dual-1GHz QuickSilver 2002, with 1GB of RAM, a GeForce4 MX, an 80GB HDD, a Super Drive, and an original Apple mouse and keyboard by the end of the day... I had been considering an upgrade card from Newer Technology or Sonnet (1.6GHz~2.0GHz, single or dual G4 CPUs starting at $200 US), but this will do just fine.

While I'm here, I guess I'll mention that I'm almost done ActRaiser, and I picked up NHL 09 and NBA Street: Homecourt for 360 (less than $20 for the pair), as well as PO'ed for 3DO... Good times :) Oh, and I enjoyed the Wet demo. Not enough to make me drop $60~$70 on the game, but enough to keep an eye out for it in the bargain bins.

So very, very stoked...

I sat down with the Brütal Legend, Forza Motorsport 3, and NHL 10 demos last night, and oh man...

NHL 10 seems pretty swell, but I think I need to spend a good few hours with it before I'm really comfortable with all of the control options. I didn't notice anything particularly game-changing over previous iterations though, and the Leafs haven't convinced to spend $60 this season... Yet :) I hear NHL 2K10 is is a much more comparable product this year, so I'll be giving that a shot as well.

Forza 3 is gorgeous, and it felt totally intuitive. I'm really tempted to pick this one up, even though I still have plenty left to do in Forza 2.

Brütal Legend though, oh man... It sucked me in immediately. The writing is the key, and it was spot-on hilarious right from the beginning. The graphics are better than I expected, and the gameplay, while a little too God Of War-esque for my liking, was varied enough to keep me riveted. I will buy this game upon its release next week.

Is there really a need?

I've been trying to figure out which PSP Need For Speed game is the best...

Underground: Rivals is a pure arcade racer; Most Wanted: 5-1-0 adds police; Carbon: Own The City adds a really lame narrative, teammates, and an open city to drive through; ProStreet throws everything previous out the window and makes a really impressive sim that is particularly challenging and looks gorgeous; Undercover is an hideous atrocity; Shift is like Rivals except that it doesn't occur exclusively at night and has some decent weather effects that significantly affect the gameplay.

So which is the best? I dunno. Aside from Undercover, they're all pretty solid. ProStreet is the most impressive of the bunch, but is it worth our time now that Gran Turismo is available? Rivals and Shift offer a lot of fun, but with games like Ridge Racer and MotorStorm out there, do they offer anything unique aside from the tuning aspect? It seems like 5-1-0 and Carbon are the two that really carve a solid niche for themselves, but even then, they have a lot in common with the PSP Burnout games.

Personally, I've had the most fun with ProStreet, with Shift/Rivals and 5-1-0/Carbon taking second or third, depending on whether I want to race mindlessly or race mindlessly with the police.

Moving on, I now have Leopard installed on my Mac, and while it feels a little sluggish compared to Tiger in the visual effects department, it's running really well. I can't wait 'til I find more RAM and a better video card for this thing; the best I can find right now for a reasonable price is a 64MB GeForce4 MX...

Son Of FrankenMac

I got the leftovers pieced together, and now my unexpected second Power Mac G4 is in business... Albeit with a noisy CPU fan and a damaged speaker. Anyway, it's running Mac OS X 10.4.11 on an 800MHz G4 (no L3 cache) with 320MB of RAM, a 16MB AGP ATi Rage 128 Pro, a 30GB Maxtor HDD, and a CD-RW drive. Not sure what to do with this one yet...

FrankenMac

Upon returning to my office with the QuickSilver 2002 in tow on Thusday, a coworker of mine noted that he had "one of those" too... And then asked me if I wanted it. I picked it up last night :) His is an older model QuickSilver, but was a little more full-featured than what I'd picked up. So far, I've taken the CPU, RAM, and video card from his Mac and added it all to mine (newer motherboard). I would've taken his Super Drive as well, but it doesn't seem to be working.

As it stands, my QuickSilver 2002 is now running Mac OS X 10.4.11 on an 867MHz G4 (2MB L3 cache) with 640MB of RAM, a 32MB AGP GeForce2 MX, a 40GB Seagate HDD, an NEC 3550A DVD+/-RW, and a USB 2.0 PCI card. I'll be adding more RAM (1.5GB max) as I find it, and possibly upgrading to OS X 10.5... Tracking down a dual-1GHz CPU card would be nice too :) 

The only thing that troubles me with this rig is how much trouble it has running Flash videos. It can do 480p MPEG videos fullscreen without a hitch, but YouTube often looks like a slide show :\

Hindsight

I was in a surplus store yesterday, looking for a specific kind of SCSI enclosure... Without any luck. I did, however, pick-up a pristine Lian Li case for $30, as well as a QuickSilver 2002 Power Mac G4 for $125. Not the greatest deal on the Mac, but I love the design. It was low-end (single 800MHz CPU, no L3 cache) and stripped of all but the bare necessities (256MB of RAM, 40GB HDD, and downgraded to a 16MB ATi Rage 128 Pro video card), but I figured I have RAM and hard drives at home, I could always keep an eye out for a better video card, and maybe I'll stumble across a dual-1GHz CPU upgrade some day. Mostly I just really like the case though ;) Unfortunately, upon returning home, I discovered that I'd given away all of my PC133 RAM! I used to have stacks of the stuff! Damnit! It's gonna cost me in the neighbourhood of $100 to max the thing out if I go new :( I did get Mac OS X 10.4 installed though, and it actually runs pretty well at 1280x1024, so I'm not that upset.

I also picked-up ActRaiser for SNES, and it promptly sucked me in. If not for the free episode of Tales Of Monkey Island that was released on International Talk Like A Pirate Day, ActRaiser would be all I've been playing at home these days. On the PSP front, Dissidia lost my interest with its lame stories and incessant grinding, and Marvel Trading Card Game had my head spinning before I was finished the tutorials.

WiiMelt

My Wii has overheated while in standby mode. There are now visual artifacts on the display whenever it is turned on. I always used to turn it off when I was done for the day, but the idea of having news and weather updates waiting for me before I played was kind of cool. I also liked how the system's light would pulse when new updates were available... I don't like it so much anymore, now that it apparently comes at a ridiculous cost.

Searching the web has revealed that this isn't exactly an uncommon occurrence, so I'll be in touch with Nintendo's service department... Though really, I'd just like to get a new one.

$30 Good?

Trine is good. People keep comparing it to The Lost Vikings, but there're some pretty big fundamental differences between the two games... Then again, I understand the need for some kind of touchstone in journalism, adding historical weight to something new. Anyway, yeah, Trine is good. $30 good? Maybe; depends on whether you really like that kind of game or not. $20 good? Definitely. There's nothing wrong with Trine, but the concept does get kind of old before long, and the game is definitely lacking polish. The menus and loading screens, the way the models animate and interact with the environments, and even the character development in terms of narrative... They all just seem decidedly low-budget. Not bad, mind you; they're perfectly passable. It's just that when I play games like World Of Goo, 'splosion Man, and even Penny Arcade Adventures and see just how slick they are, it gets a little bit harder to swallow the price premium for Trine. I still recommend grabbing the demo and deciding for yourself though.

Picked-up Guitar Hero Unplugged and Dissidia: Final Fantasy for PSP. The former is fun, but then I was never a big fan of Frequency or Amplitude... Dissisdia, like Crisis Core, had me thoroughly confused at first; Super Smash Bros. gameplay and these weird boardgame maps between battles... The tutorials didn't really help either. After settling into the actual game though, things started to make more sense. I like the strategy, but I foresee plenty of grinding in this one. I found the grind acceptable in Crisis Core on account of the storyline and other available activities, and while a lot of that is present here, it feels much less cohesive... Let's see if it drags me in.

Heh, why not...

PS3 Slim Size Comparison

Holy Crap!

3D Dot Game Heroes

Also, I picked-up a copy of ToeJam & Earl for Genesis, and I finished Sonic Adavce 2.

Seriously, it's a Sonic game!

I finished Mirror's Edge (without using any guns). It was really good. I'm not sure what everyone was complaining about when it came out though... Yeah, the cutscenes felt rough when juxtaposed with the super slick game engine, and the main campaign is kinda short, but there's a huge amount of replay value in there. Mirror's Edge really is like a Sonic The Hedgehog game; you can finish it in no time, but if you want to get the most out of it, you practice your routes, scour levels for secrets, and strive for achievements that actually mean something... And it becomes a whole new game. I definitely had to repeat a few sections ad nauseam, but it was usually because I was trying to neutralise every enemy without firing a shot when I should've been running like hell. My only real complaints are the out-of-place cutscenes, some trite dialogue, and the odd environment element that didn't turn red when it should've (that's how the game helps you find a route through the level); otherwise, it was well worth my time, and I'm definitely looking forward to the sequel.

Oh, and I finally tracked-down a copy of Ristar for Genesis!

Summer of...

Everything you've read about XBOX Live's Summer of Arcade titles is true. 'splosion Man is great fun, with its fast-paced mix of platform and puzzle action. Trials HD is gorgeous in its simplicity (and graphics), resulting in an delightfully addictive experience. Turtles In time Re-Shelled is alright, but ultimately disappointing, Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 is Marvel Vs. Capcom 2.

Moving on, the final battle in Sonic Advance 2 wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have to fight the boss that can randomly kill you with one hit and spends two thirds of the battle off-screen... Again! He was annoying enough the first time at the end of Sky Canyon, and now they're making me fight him again? Fuck.

In other news, I picked-up an Epson R300 complete with ink on the cheap off craigslist in order to print on CDs. Ooh, and then I ran into an issue with a computer I was asked to repair in a rush. First diagnosis was bad RAM after failed tests. I got it running properly the same day, but with only one stick. The guy came back wanting to buy more RAM, and so I took it again and looked into things further before spending any money... It should've hit me as soon as I saw the purple PCB of the motherboard; yup, yet another failing ECS product. I swapped-in a BioStar U8668-D v7.1 (had an extra one lying around that I'd saved from the trash), but he had a 2.4GHz "Prescott" Pentium 4 in that ECS board... v7.1 of the BioStar board doesn't support "Prescott" CPUs. So I've donated my P4 2.8Bto the cause and put an old P4 2.4B in my workhorse. I now have two 2.4GHz "Prescott" CPUs (at least one of which overclocks to a stable 3.6GHz on stock cooling) just lying around.

Wax Nostlagic.

I have a soft spot for SEGA's 32X, probably because it was the first contemporary video game system (not counting PCs) that my parents ever bought for me. I'd rescued a ColecoVision from a garbage can, acquired an Atari 2600 in a trade with a friend, and my grandparents had given me a Game Boy when it was first released, but the 32X was when my parents finally broke down ;) They got me a model 2 Genesis with Sonic 2 and a Menacer, as well as a 32X with Virtua Racing Deluxe... I don't think you understand just what a momentous occasion that was in my family.

As I reflect on fiddling with the electromagnetic shields to fit them into the Genesis' cartridge slot, and then suffering my mother's comment of "Don't games on the computer look better than that?" upon seeing Virtua Racing Deluxe, I can't help but feel that it was somewhat of a bittersweet experience. Then again, I got to play an excellent port of Virtua Fighter at home without shelling-out for a Saturn, and at the time, that was more than enough for me. The fact that I also got to enjoy the entire Genesis library as well as sweet 32X games like After Burner Complete, Knuckles' Chaotix, Kolibri, Mortal Kombat II, Tempo, Shadow Squadron, Space Harrier, Star Wars Arcade, Virtua Racing Deluxe, and Zaxxon's Motherbase 2000 ain't so bad either... And I'm sure I learned a lesson in there somewhere, making-do with what I had.

What's with the sudden bout of nostalgia? Well, new developements regarding two particular unreleased 32X games have been brought to my attention:

1. A prototype of Virtua Hamster has been dumped! Yes, Virtua Hamster... Seriously, check it out. I always wondered exactly what this game was gonna be like, and now I have a much better idea. There're videos on YouTube if you don't feel like tracking down the dump and an emulator.
2. Videos have surfaced of the 32X-exclusive X-MEN game!!! I remember drooling over screenshots of this thing back in the day, and I recall the alpha/prototype/promo/whatever copy selling on eBay for like $1000 not too long ago... Videos here, and more info here! The ROM has been dumped, but does not currently run on any emulators.
   

In other news, don't pay me to fix your computer, only to remove all of the anti-virus and ant-spyware measures I installed, install your own shitty anti-virus software, get duped by fake anti-virus software that isn't what you installed, and then ask me to fix it again. Ugh.

Should've made the connection sooner...

Mirror's Edge is Sonic The Hedgehog in 3D. It's easy to muddle your way through each game, but the real experience lies in the challenge of mastering a fluid path through each level without losing momentum.

Speaking of Sonic The Hedgehog, I'm on the final battle of Sonic Advance 2.

Speaking of portables, I picked up a copy of Puzzle Link for Neo Geo Pocket Color today.

Speaking of what I picked up today, I also bought a copy of X-Perts for Genesis today. Yes, it's kind of awful (though the gameplay design is pretty interesting), but I don't think I'd ever actually seen a copy of it before and it was under $10.

Oh, and I've finished On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness - Episode 2. It was fantastic; a slick mix of adventure gaming and RPGs, less repetitive than its predecessor, and hilariously entertaining. Man, I hope Episode Three gets made. I've since installed Planescape: Torment... Looks like Majora's Mask is gonna hafta wait a little longer.