A game a day...

Atavan-Halen

It's come to my attention that I have a lot of games that I've not yet played and have been sat on the shelf for a long time. So in order to at least experience some of these games I've set myself a challenge. Basically starting tomorrow night I'll play a game I've not yet played that I own for at least an hour then give a short impression on this thread. I know it's not a lot of time especially for RPG's and the like but it's a start! I'll continue this until I've worked my way through all of the unplayed games. So working from the top of my shelves to the bottom, first up is Resident Evil: Code Veronica on the Dreamcast. That is if the Dreamcast wants to play nice and change from NTSC-J mode to PAL mode!

CiDeRmAn

I have a copy of that, a Jap one, in a very nice burgundy sleeve..
Wonder if it's worth anything?

Atavan-Halen

So after a big hassle of finally changing the Dreamcast from Japanese to PAL, I popped in Resi Evil only to find the disc is too scrached to play, so that one's going on hold for a while. I did however decide to give Sega GT a go instead as it's another one on the list. Now I'm a big Gran Turismo fan so it was interesting to play this and see how it compared. It's probably unfair to compare it to GT2 as that was on the previous generation to the Dreamcast but it's more similar graphics and performance wise to that as opposed to GT3 in which there's no comparison as GT3 is miles ahead. On first impressions the menu layout is a bit confusing and doesn't look great. It took me a little while to figure out where to go and to actually find out how to navigate through the lists of cars. I was also confused as to why I couldn't buy certain cars when I had enough money but I found out that in order to buy these cars you need to obtain the relevant class licence to the class of the car.

The license system doesn't really pose as much of a challenge compared to the GT system. All you have to do is select one challenge out of 10, beat the lap time and that's it, you win that license. As for when you actually start racing this is where it's a bit disappointing. The handling is very drifty and the cars are quite bouncy. Braking seems unresponsive and brushing off a wall will slow you right down.

The car selection however is quite nice and contains all of the usual 1999/2000 suspects as well as less common found cars. I only briefly explored the tuning options and all the basics are there. Overall it's an ok game and seems more refined than Gran Turismo. You can definitely tell it's in between GT2 and GT3. Not quite as good as GT2 but far behind GT3. I'd recommend picking it up if you see it for < €5 but I wouldn't pay much more for it.

I think I covered most things but it's my first review of something so still learning. Tomorrows game is Bangai-O on the DC!

o1s1n

This is a really great idea man, good luck with it!

You're in for a treat tomorrow with Bangai-O. If I'm home I'll give it a blast myself, haven't played it in ages.

Atavan-Halen

o1s1n wrote: »

This is a really great idea man, good luck with it!

You're in for a treat tomorrow with Bangai-O. If I'm home I'll give it a blast myself, haven't played it in ages.

Thanks! I figure there's no point in owning so many games that I haven't played

Myrddin

atavan-halen wrote: »

So after a big hassle of finally changing the Dreamcast from Japanese to PAL

Forgot about that switch at the back did ya?

Atavan-Halen

EnterNow wrote: »

atavan-halen wrote: »

So after a big hassle of finally changing the Dreamcast from Japanese to PAL

Forgot about that switch at the back did ya?

No it's getting the dc to actually read cdr's

Myrddin

atavan-halen wrote: »

No it's getting the dc to actually read cdr's

For whatever reason a cd-r is created, it's always better to create it at the lowest possible speed settings. The brand is also important enough.

Atavan-Halen

EnterNow wrote: »

atavan-halen wrote: »

No it's getting the dc to actually read cdr's

For whatever reason a cd-r is created, it's always better to create it at the lowest possible speed settings. The brand is also important enough.

Yep, I always burn at 1 or 2x and use good quality cdr's. My dreamcast just does not like reading them at times.

Myrddin

atavan-halen wrote: »

Yep, I always burn at 1 or 2x and use good quality cdr's. My dreamcast just does not like reading them at times.

Laser issue perhaps? Also, the source image can sometimes be created by bufoons. Or does it read one day, & then the same disc won't read another day?

Atavan-Halen

EnterNow wrote: »

atavan-halen wrote: »

Yep, I always burn at 1 or 2x and use good quality cdr's. My dreamcast just does not like reading them at times.

Laser issue perhaps? Also, the source image can sometimes be created by bufoons. Or does it read one day, & then the same disc won't read another day?

Reads one day and then might not read the same disc another day. Could be a laser issue but official games always boot up first time.

Myrddin

atavan-halen wrote: »

Reads one day and then might not read the same disc another day. Could be a laser issue but official games always boot up first time.

Ah, sounds like a weak laser alright. Official discs are always easier to read, as opposed to burned discs. I know on the Gamecube, a mandatory pot adjustment is almost always required to read cd-r's.

Atavan-Halen

So just after playing some Bangai-O. Let me just start off my saying while I do immensely enjoy shmups, I'm no good at them. I know it's a genre that takes practice but I'm relatively new to the genre. Not much to say about this one really but that it's hugely enjoyable. Simple menu system and after inputting my initials as BUM (:D) I was on my way. One thing that took me a few minutes to figure out was the controls. D-pad for movement, analog stick for pointing at things to shoot and X and A buttons for shooting also. Couldn't get used to that so switched the contol options so it was face buttons for pointing and shooting which I found better. Only just got to level 4 (I'm a bit tired and not 100% in the mood to play games) so it's by no means a full impression of the game but from what I've played it's fantastic fun. Nice colours and sprites although a bit too much blue but that could be in the early levels. Highly recommend it to anyone interested in shmups. My only little complaint is the controls. By no means unplayable but I personally think it would have benifited from another analog stick. I'll definitely be coming back for more after this challenge but for now there's more games waiting to be played!

So with that short but sweet review over tomorrows game is: Battle Arena Toshinden 2 on the PS1. (cue hatrid from retr0)

Retr0gamer

Bangai-O is more puzzle game than shmup.

As for battle areno to-****-den, could you not pick a game thats better than rise if the robots?

Atavan-Halen

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Bangai-O is more puzzle game than shmup.

As for battle areno to-****-den, could you not pick a game thats better than rise if the robots?

I always thought it was until playing it and realised I wasn't actually moving vertically or horizontally. Fells more shmuppy than a puzzler to me though! That's just IMO,

Sadly no as it's next in the row of games to play. If I leave the supposedly crap games to the end I won't play them so it's good to have a mix of good and bad games.

Myrddin

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Bangai-O is more puzzle game than shmup.

As for battle areno to-****-den, could you not pick a game thats better than rise if the robots?

I remember the original PS1 demo disc regailed me with Destruction Derby, Wipeout & Battle Arena Toshinden. They all look horrific now

Retr0gamer

Battle Arena Toshinden looked so much better than Virtua Fighter that at the time we were all fooled into thinking it was a great game. Horrendous stuff going back to it now, but in those exciting days when the PS1 was the next big thing it was the business.

Myrddin

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Battle Arena Toshinden looked so much better than Virtua Fighter that at the time we were all fooled into thinking it was a great game. Horrendous stuff going back to it now, but in those exciting days when the PS1 was the next big thing it was the business.

Thats exactly it. Fooled by flashy graphics we were. Not so flashy today though, & the true horror of its gameplay is exposed

Pyongyang

EnterNow wrote: »

I remember the original PS1 demo disc regailed me with Destruction Derby, Wipeout & Battle Arena Toshinden. They all look horrific now

My PS1 came with that disc too! I remember before the UK launch the Virgin Megastore near my gaf had NTSC-J PS1's and Saturn's set up and on sale for around £500 back then.

That's the first time I'd ever seen a major high street store selling import consoles. Prior to that I'd only seen an NTSC-J Mega Drive and a 3DO at a friends house.

CiDeRmAn

Wipeout is still great!
Ok, so the game was pretty much eclipsed in everyway by Wipeout2097 but it is still fun.
A lot of the nuances weren't got by most players, the ability to change the attitude of the nose of the craft to help with landings, finessing the throttle and airbrakes to take the best racing line.
Destruction Derby has dated, but it's still good crack, the second one felt a little soulless tbh.
Loaded, now that I haven't played in a long time but it was a lot of fun, following the Alien Breed template with some nice lighting.
Toshinden sucked, always sucked. It was never as good as VF or Tekken and if 3D novelty fighters is your thing and you don't have a Saturn to play Fighters Megamix then go for the PS edition of Bloody Roar.

Retr0gamer

You don't want to play Loaded now. It's a crock of ****.

CiDeRmAn

That's fair enough, I have precious little desire to play an awful lot of stuff from that era, but then, due to the sheer volume of games on the PS, there is still tons worth playing.
Must fire up the PS again for a bit of something... but what to play?
Sometimes I just sit in front of the stack of games and waste 10 mins just going through them.
I'll tell you what though, memory cards are a serious pain in the frakkin' behind!

Retr0gamer

Haha, happens to me as well. When I finish a big RPG I'm usually 2 hours trying to think of what to play next

Myrddin

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

Sometimes I just sit in front of the stack of games and waste 10 mins just going through them

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Haha, happens to me as well. When I finish a big RPG I'm usually 2 hours trying to think of what to play next

You mean your both allowed to choose what to play? I'd have thought the Wife & Mother respectively dished out the games :pac:

Retr0gamer

My mam would be more inclined to dish them out the door than ration them out.

o1s1n

EnterNow wrote: »

You mean your both allowed to choose what to play? I'd have thought the Wife & Mother respectively dished out the games :pac:

CiDeRmAn

I suppose mine would make me play Gunstar and Sh1tes of Rage!

Atavan-Halen

Ok so I know I ignored this for a while but I'm back and decided to play Toshinden 2 for a while. It's bad. Like really bad. It's choppy, very slow and hurt my fingers to play. I decided to go with Sofia and after being terrified by her "laugh" that she makes when selecting her I was in battle. Again it's a really slow game and not very fun to play. I do however like the way the characters fall after beating them but that's all the game has going for it. Avoid it!

Some mario kart esque gameplay tomorrow with motor toon grand prix USA edition on the ps1

o1s1n

Some of those early generation PS1 games really were bad! They seem to have aged at a far worse rate than most.

Professey Chin

I actually remember enjoying Motor Toon Grand Prix...... *shudder*