As and addition to my previous post, I also picked up a brilliant game called Osmos by Hemisphere Games. It's a quirky, physics based little puzzler in which you propel a small 'mote' around attempting to absorb smaller 'motes', gradually losing mass as you go along whilst all others grow and shrink too. It's currently on sale I believe and I got it for £1.74 earlier, bargain! Get yourself a copy!

Osmos reminds me of the Cell stage on SPORE.
I think I want to try to get that game working again now...

At the moment, I'm playing Starcraft 2 and the original Legend of Zelda. Stuck on level 6 in Zelda though, it's just so damn difficult.

I love Starcraft and wish I could get Starcraft 2 to work. LoZ is kinda tough, but I haven't played it in a while, so I don't know how far I could get.

Finished Xenogears and moved on to
Suikoden V (PS2)- while not quite SuikoII for story quality, this is the first game since to really go back to the formula that, imo, II got right. The cast is expectably diverse, including a few returning faces from I/II. The story, while true to the formula long established in the series, does contain some pleasant ambiguity on how any given point will be accomplished. All 3 battle systems have been rolled back to II and then enhanced with something more engaging than gimmicky- basic combat now involves varying formations that offer bonuses to different positions and a swappable reserve group of up to 4 members; individual combat adds a little time-pressure on decisions plus secondary challenges if two equal actions connect; campaign battles are once again rock-paper-scissors strategic with units only able to survive damage 2 or 3 times, but both land and naval units exist, and battle proceeds in real-time rather than turn-based. The only element I genuinely worry about is that the army detective only gives info on characters you've seen somewhere before, meaning acquiring all 108 stars (particularly with the profusion of non-star characters) may get tricky.

and of course, a recent playthrough of
Tyrian (DOS/Win/OSX)- a rather unique top-down shooter with an extensive story, tons of options and upgrades, and nearly as many secrets and bonus features. Now that it's available free for pretty much any computer platform, definitely a game to look into acquiring if you have even a passing interest in the genre.

I'm playing through Resident Evil 4 a seventh time, I finally want to beat it on Professional Mode and get the last Unlockables I'm missing.

MegaMan Maverick Hunter X (PSP)- Just finally got myself a PSP, along with FF1, FF Tactics, and MHX. MHX is interesting. Playing it after knowing the original inside and out feels kinda like returning to the place you grew up, 15 years later. You know the lay of the land fairly exactly, and how to get where you need to go, but all those little patterns and assumptions you used to take for granted no longer quite hold, so you're left working out certain basics all over again. In some ways it's frustrating, in others it's quite enjoyable "seeing what they've done with the place." I do object to the rewrite of X's background as the manual tells it, but giving Zero, Vile, Sigma and the first-round Mavericks more character depth is nice, and I always appreciate attention to obscure details like the one Bubble Bat, the Hadoken, and Zero's pre-rebuild armor. For a remake released on a handheld, I'm pleasantly surprised to be able to sit down and play the game for its own sake rather than because I'm on the road and don't have anything better.

seanstar wrote:

Sounds interesting, will keep me eyes peeled for that.

seanstar wrote:

Is your PSP homebrew compatible? There's a good array of emulators available as well as access to built-in fullspeed PSX emulation when using CFW, it's one of the main reasons I rebought a PSP!

Gaia Seed (PSN) - I was given a free copy on the condition that I write something about the game for Bitmob. I've only spent an hour or so with the game, but I'm really liking it. The music is great, the shooting and dodging mechanics are difficult but forgiving, and the level design is very interesting.

Unfortunately, it was difficult to take the introduction seriously, since the narrator has a thick Japanese accent and struggles with some words (not just the ones with an 'r' or 'l' in them, either). What is meant to be a serious story (as far as I can tell) then comes across as stereotypically 'Engrish,' which is doubly sad because the script he's reading is quite well translated. I honestly would have preferred if they had an English subtitles option instead of an English voice-over option.

It's a shame that shoot-'em-ups went (largely) out of commercial favour outside Japan in the (mid?) late 90s, but at least now the games we missed are getting re-released online for a broader audience.

[/quote]

Bleh... if only. Wasn't really on my radar at the time I made the impulse-buy. Shiny green PSP-3001 purchased used in excellent condition with firmware 6.frack Loooong way from 3.5.

I've got a PSP 1000 so I'm not exactly sure of the details but it may be worth looking into downgrading in order to install CFW. It's a poorly organised site when you're trying to find what you're looking for but PSP Hacks seem to have loads of the different permutations of CFWs, downgraders and loaders for all breeds of PSP.

I've had my own difficult PSP experience, I imported one shortly after release but was highly disappointed with what it had to offer and sold it to a friend. Within about a month there were games from all of my favourite franchises, homebrew and excellent emulators all round I only reacquired one recently but made sure I could go CFW, if there's any chance you can get it onto your device I highly recommend it. Just be careful not to brick it...and don't tell Sony.

Skipped God of War 3 (Need a break from action games)
Tried GTA: Ballad of Gay Tony. Although GTA4 was amazing when it came out. The controls seem dated and in the way now. The story was good, but the frustrating controls left me dying a bit too often and I got bored.

Hacked my Wii and am now playing Paper Mario for N64 and then probably Zelda: Majora's Mask.

After that, Metroid: Other M.

Then God of War 3

Virtual Boy (er... the Virtual Boy): Condensing the 5 games I grabbed so far to a single entry. The system is honestly not half as bad as reports led me to fear. Awkward? yes. Poorly designed? As all hell. But once you're past the notion of a 2D tile/sprite-based chipset doing stereo 3D games, the system has potential. The 3D effect actually works quite well. The trouble is... the games don't. Mario Tennis, the release pack-in, should NOT be the most enjoyable best-use-of-3D game in the library, and yet... Panic Bomber: Why does this game need to degrade the Bomberman IP? And why does it have to be a sucky non-3D-using puzzler to boot? Mario Clash: It's... vaguely almost Mario... would rather be playing a proper Mario game. Galactic Pinball: It's Pinball. With a puck. Vertical Force: A solidly generic shooter with solidly generic gameplay, save that it's predictably played on 2 depth planes.
Thankfully, there's now a VB Flashcart available, and allegedly some decent homebrew, if I don't decide to try writing my own...

after finally getting a component cable for my ps2, i play a lot of SSX 3 again. it's the only sports series, if you can call it that, i ever got into.
i wish they would do another one for the 360 or ps3, a remake of ssx 1 or tricky for xbla and psn perhaps. i'd totally buy it!

the Legend of Dragoon (Playstation): Billed once as Sony's Final Fantasy Killer, and on the surface, the term can gain traction. The battle system alone will carry the game's first couple hours for a new player- the Additions system is an excellent active mechanic for a turn-based game, and Dragoon transformation is highly satisfying the first couple times you try it. The graphics are beautiful, for the era, and the environment comes across as culturally just as rich. The story has some strong cliche elements- save the girlfriend, save the world and all that- but there's plenty of room for building deeper meaning in side-stories, backstories, and the political and social interactions between characters, countries, races, and time periods. Trouble is, that room is not taken in any particularly compelling way. Reading the script, I feel like the Japanese version must be far better, but that the developers were either too cheap or too proud to run the game past native English speakers with any degree of writing background. Dialogue is stiff and formal, and frequently lacking in vocabulary, which makes it very difficult to form a strong bond with the main characters. Critical plot turns are particularly anticlimactic when devoid of the both literary texture in delivery and richness and subtlety of background I feel must have been part of the story in the mind of the original author. Still, for a 4-disc game, the pace at least seems to be holding up, although that may be because I'm averaging a scant 12 hours per disc, which would put the whole game in at 48 hours, well under the 60 I anticipate for a strong JRPG.

Having cleaned my Coleco for optimal performance I'm back to playing River Raid and Frenzy. Bad news is in cleaning my front sticker ripped in half the base stuck the image came off. So if anyone knows where I can get a new sticker it would be much appreciated.

Among other things, I've been trying not to have a seizure playing Yar's Revenge for Atari 2600. It's one of those games that once you find a 'technique', you get addicted to trying to repeat it over and over. Hours of fun!

To get the seizure move real close to the TV and only have the void zone fill your vision or move faster and keep that end level light blinking faster and faster! You will be in the beyond man you will be there.

And of course, the other problem with Legend of Dragoon:
(WARNING: DOCUMENT CONTENTS MAY MAKE YOU GO BLIND)
(ADDITIONAL WARNING: IF DOCUMENT CONTENTS DON'T MAKE YOU GO BLIND, THEY MAY MAKE YOU GO MAD)
(ADDITIONAL ADDITIONAL WARNING: IF YOU DON'T GO BLIND OR MAD, THE DOCUMENT IS MORE OR LESS MADE OF SPOILERS)
(CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED.)
www.psychsoftware.org/stuff/temp/Dragoon.pdf
(sorry, this version is still appallingly incomplete)

dickmedd wrote:


Bsvk when I used to come up to my grandparents' for the summer I played thid game. A lot. In a typical game session involving Yar's Revenge I would flip the score counter at least three if not four times. I was that good.

Ahhh...the good ol' days where beating a game meant flipping the counter or freezing up because you've beaten enough levels to hit the 8-bit unsigned int Wall of Doom.