So, what you playing at the mo? Retro Edition

Myrddin

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I've gotten over the clunky controls of System Shock 1 and I'm now absolutely loving it. It's so far ahead of its time, hard to believe it came out in 1994.

Not that hard to believe, the early to mid 90's was a time when devs pushed the limits & actually used imagination.

/monacle

Retr0gamer

Yeah but it's especially so for System Shock. Each weapon has multiple ammunition for it. You adjust the power output on all energy weapons. You have a massive inventory system and have to pick and choose what weapons to bring. You have to pick weapons and ammo for specific enemies. The levels are massive non-linear affairs connected by elevators and you have to jump between floors to complete objectives. I've given credit to goldeneye for the objective based mission structure in an FPS but System Shock had it back in 1994. You can also duck and peer around corners whichI think is the first time it's been done in an FPS.

The engine is really impressive. It can't do the massive environments that Doom can do but in other ways it's much better. It can do both ray traced 3D but also has polygonal models in the game. What it means is you get lots of detail in environments that isn't possible on normal ray traced engines like Doom. Walk into a cupboard and there'll be polygonal shelves or walk into an office and there'll be filing cabinets, tables and chairs. It's got rooms over rooms and it's own physics engine, genades can be thrown in an arc, you can jump and gravity can change on the fly. Halo, Bungie and Mac users bang on about Marathon having these things first but here's System Shock with them a few weeks before hand and has a much better engine. Hacking into cyberspace gives you a free flying 3D wireframe representation of hacking with voxel enemies.

The voice acting is also superb and the way the story is presented is excellent, using the same audio tape format from Bioschock or system shock 2. It's a really well written game with a decent story, however Marathon doesn't beat it in delivery but does in complexity. The music is also reactive to the situation, like Lucas Arts iMuse system but not as good. The soundtrack however is excellent especially with a good midi soundfont.

There's a hell of a lot in this game that you can see heavily influencing later games.

Steve X2

Playing a bit of Ibara black label today on the arcade machine.
Failing at it pretty bad.

I'll blame the lack of sleep on it this time

.

CiDeRmAn

Well, it was 3DS all the way with Zelda:OoT and some Pullblox as well (thanks /\/ollag), the latter is amazing, worth it at €35 as a cart it's an absolute steal at €6 as a download.

Doge

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I've gotten over the clunky controls of System Shock 1 and I'm now absolutely loving it. It's so far ahead of its time, hard to believe it came out in 1994.

I've played System Shock 2 alright, and it was great.

Deus Ex seemed to steal a lot from it.

I felt far more motivated to finish System Shock 2,
didn't think Deus Ex was as great as people made it out to be, got sick of it and never finished it.

I have yet to play the first System Shock, was put off playing such an old game,
but since I've got a retro vibe atm, I might look passed the aged graphics!

Retr0gamer

Deus Ex shared a lot of the same developers and Warren Spector was a big fan of System Shock 2.

System Shock 1 is very archaic, don't be surprised if you don't get along with it.

CiDeRmAn

Deus Ex, to me, was one of those road to Damascus moments, where you realise you'll never see gaming the same way again.
It changed my expectations of what a videogame should or could aspire to be.
Ok, some of the open areas were a tad small but, given the limitations of the hardware at the time, it was pretty special.
Similar moments were had with Need For Speed on the 3DO, Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, OoT, Streets of Rage 2, The Last Blade 2, StarControl 2 and a few more...
Wait,
there's something wrong with that sentence....

Retr0gamer

The last few nights I've been absolutely loving Wizardry Labyrinth of Lost Souls. It's on PSN for anyone with a PS3. It's a fantastic little western RPG dungeon crawler (with some anime characters). Very addictive.

CiDeRmAn

Retr0gamer wrote: »

The last few nights I've been absolutely loving Wizardry Labyrinth of Lost Souls. It's on PSN for anyone with a PS3. It's a fantastic little western RPG dungeon crawler (with some anime characters). Very addictive.

Frakker!
That was aimed at me!

I suppose it'll be jokes at my kaputnik Wii next!

o1s1n

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Deus Ex, to me, was one of those road to Damascus moments, where you realise you'll never see gaming the same way again.
It changed my expectations of what a videogame should or could aspire to be.
Ok, some of the open areas were a tad small but, given the limitations of the hardware at the time, it was pretty special.
Similar moments were had with Need For Speed on the 3DO, Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, OoT, Streets of Rage 2, The Last Blade 2, StarControl 2 and a few more...
Wait,
there's something wrong with that sentence....

Yeah, Need for Speed on the 3D0 is a load of ****e

Finally got my mits on Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7. So they will be taking up most of my time in the near future.

Seem be having some issues with Mario Kart though. First time I booted the game up it didn't appear on the menu. Second time it ran fine. Third time I got some error and the 3DS reset itself. 4th time it ran fine, was first in a online game, about to win - lost connection.

Steve X2

Hey, who's bad mouthing the fantastic 3DO

.

Pyongyang

Cleared (aka, credit-fed) Elevator Action Returns last night. I'm in love with the soundtrack!

The ending smells of bum though as the last level is a time limit, if you don't clear it in time you get a crap ending of, well, nothing. Yes, nothing.

Problem is the last part doesn't make it clear how to exit the building at all so I was left scouring blindly for the exit! :mad:

pdbhp

o1s1n wrote: »

Seem be having some issues with Mario Kart though. First time I booted the game up it didn't appear on the menu. Second time it ran fine. Third time I got some error and the 3DS reset itself. 4th time it ran fine, was first in a online game, about to win - lost connection.

I had similar issues trying to play DS games on my 3DS recently, well after the latest update anyways. It might be something to do with that!

Monkeyto

Retr0gamer wrote: »

The last few nights I've been absolutely loving Wizardry Labyrinth of Lost Souls. It's on PSN for anyone with a PS3. It's a fantastic little western RPG dungeon crawler (with some anime characters). Very addictive.

There's a Wizardry MMO out in Japan that is actually quite fun. One of the selling points is that once your character gets killed, that's it no more revive. Certainly bumps up the challenge.

I wonder if Dark Souls had such a feature, how many would have completed it :P

Retr0gamer

Monkeyto wrote: »

There's a Wizardry MMO out in Japan that is actually quite fun. One of the selling points is that once your character gets killed, that's it no more revive. Certainly bumps up the challenge.

I wonder if Dark Souls had such a feature, how many would have completed it :P

Wizardry on PSN is pretty hardcore as well. Starting to get to areas of dungeons that are really tough. Get into battle in a no magic zone with a tough enemy and you're ****ed. Also if a party member dies there's a big chance that once you go back to the temple to revive them they'll be dead... permanently. My advice on this is save often!

The first dungeon has an area beside a door with a note saying 'some doors are not meant to be opened'. The correct way to proceed is to save then go through the door and immediately regret it. I forewent saving and my level 3 characters ended up fighting a level 12 enemy that took my whole party out in one move before I could react Went to the church and lost 3 characters permanently so had to reload a good bit back!

TBH it's not too hard to bring a new character up to a decent level. There's not much use for gold after about level 10 but you can trade gold for experience points which levels you up fairly quickly.

Anyway it reminds me a bit of Tartarus in Persona 3. If anyone liked the tension of going through Tartarus then this game is well worth entry fee and the DLC is reasonable for what it gives you.

CiDeRmAn

o1s1n wrote: »

Yeah, Need for Speed on the 3D0 is a load of ****e

Lucky you, looks like you'll be getting a slap in the puss for Christmas!





Same as you got last year!

o1s1n

pdbhp wrote: »

I had similar issues trying to play DS games on my 3DS recently, well after the latest update anyways. It might be something to do with that!

Ah, that a million for that, probably explains it as I've just updated to the new firmware myself. Was almost going to contact Gamestop telling them they sent me a dud game!

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Lucky you, looks like you'll be getting a slap in the puss for Christmas!

Same as you got last year!

In the eloquent words of Axel from Streets of Rage -

'BARE KNUCKLEEEEEE!!!!!'

...

I assume I'm still welcome in your house on Friday? :pac:

pdbhp

Playing the living shít out of Okamiden on DS, played about 9 or so hours over the weekend jaysus it seems like a long game, hopefully there won't be too much grind involved

o1s1n

Super Mario 3D Land is just...just...sublime

Reason alone for owning a 3DS. I am delighted with it.

Mario Kart 7 is a bit of fun in multiplayer as Mario Kart games are...but is nothing compared to 3D land.

kevin2me

Just bought Mario 3d Land too, ill pick up MarioKart before Xmas...
You gotta Love Nintendo, They just have some unreal Nostalgia
its doesnt matter if its old or brand new game the release... They just nail it every time... Skyward Swords for Game of the Year... !!!

OwaynOTT

It's burns that I have to wait till the 25th to play mario on 3ds. First Christmas morning that im looking to in an age.
Expectations have been tempered with the news that the mother was asking if I liked 'Everybody Loves Raymond'. I pray to the gods of Christmas comedy boxsets that it will not happen to me.

J_E

Thinking of starting Chrono Trigger. Went through a few FF games and looking for some more retro SNES goodness. What do you guys think?

Retr0gamer

It's better than any of the FF games and the best RPG on the system bar Earthbound.

Mr.Saturn

Cydoniac wrote: »

Thinking of starting Chrono Trigger. Went through a few FF games and looking for some more retro SNES goodness. What do you guys think?

Oh really, do it. I shan't egg you on too much, but frankly, all hyperbole aside, along with the Mother series, it validates video-gaming as a pursuit.

J_E

Looks like I shall be spending tomorrow playing it so! Will be a nice diversion from Skyrim...

Steve X2

Having a blast of Espgaluda II HD and Bug Princess on the iPad 2.

For some reason I missed the fact that they had a HD version of Espgaluda II that only ran on the iPad 2.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPhZvgRG5Jo

.

o1s1n

Cydoniac wrote: »

Looks like I shall be spending tomorrow playing it so! Will be a nice diversion from Skyrim...

Diversion from Skyrim, DIVERSION?! :eek:

I haven't played Skyrim yet, but I already know Chrono Trigger is better

It's a game with heart. Something most modern games are missing.

CiDeRmAn

o1s1n wrote: »

I haven't played Skyrim yet, but I already know Chrono Trigger is better

cough*fanboy*cough

o1s1n

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

cough*fanboy*cough

As much as I hate that term as it reminds me of 13 year old fat kids shouting abuse at each other in PS3 versus 360 threads, I can't help but agree.

I'm the same with Link to the Past and Sonic 1. It's a completely irrational love which transcends any kind of reasonable debate.

johnny_ultimate

There's nothing wrong with being a fanboy of a certain game / movie / whatever on two conditions: 1) That you're completely aware of that fact and 2) are still able to critique from a removed perspective if it is warranted. Everyone has their weaknesses - Persona 3/4, Cave shmups and Neon Genesis Evangelion here! I know their respective flaws (except for Persona 4, which is perfect) but still appreciate them on an irrational level