Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Save States and Cheating

For those that don't know, a Save State is a feature of an emulator that saves the game exactly as it is. When you Load State it brings up the game exactly as you save stated it. This allows for saves in games that don't normally have them, or in places you can't save in the game (a save anywhere in the Final Fantasy games for example)



I do a fair amount of my videogaming through emulation. I have the Xbox 360 and the PS2 hooked up, and everything else I do through my computer and whoo boy do I have a bunch,and even worse I have the consoles, games and such in storage upstairs. Emulation for me is for convenience.

So I was playing the PS1 Space invaders update, and I play through 5 or 10 stages at a sit. I save state before each level, and if I die, I replay. I do similar things with Super Mario Brothers 3 and Sonic. I play through a level or two and save state. This allows me to actually progress through and beat these games, something I just don't have the time to do in one sitting these days.

Save stating is actually one of the main reasons I do emulation, for just that reason. It allows me to play the games on my schedule, not theirs. And as I don't have the 3 to 5 hours to spend beating a mario game all at once, it is refreshing to be able to play through old favorites, and not just play the same levels over and over.

It also means I am “cheating' to an extent. By replaying levels till I get them right from a savestate I don't suffer whatever negative consequences for failing at that point. This allows me to get every crystal in sonic (I hit the bonus section, and don't get the crystal – load state and start the level over. And I am not one to be above cheating – I used the old Game Genie on my NES and Genesis, Gameshark on PS1 and 2, and recently been using Code Breaker.

The reason I do this? Simple, and it is the mantra of this blog. I play the games on my time, my way. If the game is too difficult for me, I cheat. If I the game is set up to only play in one long sitting, I'll break it up. I may not be playing the games the designers sold me, but if the only way I can enjoy them is to change the rules, then so be it.

Now Back to games - Shooting down marching aliens.

Games played since last post:
Gauntlet Dark Legacy (PS2)
Solitaire (PC)
Conan (360)
Space Invaders (PS1)
Ghost Recon Advance Warfare 2 (360)
Black (Xbox)
Bonk (TG-16)
Exile (TG-16 CD)

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Ding Ding Ding – Fight!!

I've mentioned before that I love certain genres, but I really suck at playing them. Today's post will be all about one of those. Fighting Games. How bout a list: Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Dead or Alive, Guilty Gear, Soul Caliber, Dark Stalkers, Xmen, Primal Rage, Killer Instinct, Eternal Champions, Clay Fighter, Godzilla, King Of Fighters, Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury, World Heroes, Samurai Showdown, Cyberbots.

Whew, quite a list, and it isn't by any means comprehensive. And today that is what is being discussed – the games where you spend you time beating up on the guy across the screen from you with flesh, weapons, ch'i, any old thing that seems appropriate. Be warned, this isn't an analytical piece, it is a love affair with the genre.

I love these things. If I can get past level 4 without it being on Easy, it is amazing, but I love them anyway. Some of them are button mashers, other have a very deep and intricate game play. Some are 2d some are 3d.

First some words on the game that started it all. Street Fighter II. And all the little add ons with extra character. It originally had 8 characters, then 12 then more, and new and different characters came out. Then things like Rage Meters, and super combos. And Capcom kept coming out with other – Dark Stalkers, X-men, Marvel Supers, Marvel Vs Capcom, Cyberbots (A personal favorite).

The other leader was SNK games which ended up in the NeoGeo arcade and home machines. Many fighting series, Art of Fighting, Fatal Fury, World Heroes, Samurai Showdown. And as they became well known for the genre, they instituted their King of Fighters series, taking characters from their other fighting games and pitting them against each other.

Then the unthinkable happened. The two biggest 2-D fighting game companies worked together with the Capcom vs SNK, and the SNK vs Capcom. Each one had characters from each company stable fighting each other. And one used a very Capcom like fighting engine and controls, and the other used SNKs. Great Games.

There were the home games that didn't move around the arcade – Weaponlord, Clay Fighter, Eternal Champion (and man were those sprites big for the era). And the Mortal Kombat series which gave us Fatalities and their variations, and the idea of photo instead of animation.

We also had a 3-d Revolution. Tekken and Virtua Fighter. This led to a slew of 3-d fighters, Dead Or Alive, Soul Caliber, and even 3-d versions of Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter.

And the games did usually have some similarities but that was due to trying to reach the largest number of players. You had one big lumbering guy who did lots of damage. You had a light fighter that was swifter than the wind (my usually choice), some all around good fighters (usually the character the stories were built around).

Ah stories. Yes these games had stories, usually pretty thin ones, just enough of a plot to justify these characters coming together to beat each other's brains in. The biggest part of the stories were in the character background, why they come to the tournament, and who they are after. Some of the home games have a challenge or story mode that has you run through a number of fights, with small little cut scenes dealing with the characters backstory.

Now back to games - running around a 3-d maze killing monsters and collecting crystals and hearing "Valkyrie needs food badly"

Games played since last post
Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom (360)
Bards Tale (PS2)
Soul Caliber 2 (PS2)
Space Invaders remake (PS1)
Spyro the Dragon (PS1)
Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis)
Pinball Hall of Fame - Gottlieb Collection (PS2)
Defender (Arcade through Mame)
Radiant Silvergun (Saturn)
Gauntlet Dark Legacy (PS2)
Conan (360)

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Snap Judgment Reviews 3: With A Vengence

Tomb Raider Anniversary Edition.
I've never really played any of the tomb raider games, but they are so huge in the industry I felt the need to try. I rented Legend a while ago, and hated it – I couldn't make the jumps, and I got stuck within 10 minutes, in the tutorial. So I tried to give this one a shot. It took me a half hour to get bored. Run around look in rooms, no real direction on what you need to do, puzzles with no impetus. So this is a put back on the rental shelf and never touch them again. Thumbs down.

Dead Rising
I'm not a fan of zombie stuff, but I've heard this one was pretty fun. I played it for an hour or two. It was a blast; running around avoiding or killing zombies, rescuing people, running zombies over with a lawnmower. The “hard to read” wasn't as bad as I feared (I have no HD TV, and the text is fairly small on regular TVs). I've not been a huge player of 3rd person action games, but this, Lost Planet, Conan, God of War and Earth Defense Force 2017 is making me into a fan.

Stranglehold
This was the best of the bunch. A John Woo video game, starring Chow Yun Fat – a sequel to Hard Boiled. I wasn't expecting much out of it, and boy was I surprised. As I've stated before I'm not a fan of spending all my time behind cover in a shooter – I like to run out and shoot things – and if you have ever seen a John Woo movie, then you know that is his approach.
The mechanics reward that kind of game play – you get a healing meter that lets you heal damage. One of the ways to add to the meter is to make stylish kills – double gunned while leaping in slow motions, while sliding down a handrail on stairs, while jumping over counters, or rolling on a cart. So the more you dive in and kill the easier it is to get your health back. The game has slo-motion and 2 handed gun play, as you would expect from a Woo movie. You also get “standoffs” a particular style of combat where everything goes in slow-mo and you have to take out villains in a particular order while avoiding their shots, and you can unlock a mode where you focus on the bad guy, shoot him and there is a small cut scene of his death – and you can do this to any enemy.

This one truly is an action movie in game form. It is at the top of my “to buy” list.

Now back to games – Running through ancient lands of Hyboria cutting off people's arms

Games played since last post

Turok Dinosaur hunter – Demo (360).
Dead Rising (360)
Tomb Raider Anniversary Edition (360)
Stranglehold (360)
Radiant Silvergun (Saturn)
Panzer Dragoon (Saturn)
Clockwork Knight (Saturn)
Gauntlet Dark Legacy (PS2)
God of War (PS2)
Conan (360)

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

A Treasured Game

Another innovative way to make things possible for use casual gamers, increasing abilities on the game. I love shooters – first person, third person, scrolling horizontal or vertical. One of the best vertical scrolling shooter is Radiant Silvergun* It's genius is that unlike most shooter of this type – there are no temporary power ups. I say again, there are no temporary power ups – you don't pick up something to make it possible to get through the level, then die, and come back in the middle of the level just like you started the game.

What you have instead are weapons that power up. The more you shoot things, the more the weapons power up. You can save your game, and when you come back to it later the weapons are as powerful as you left them. This does two things; First, as you memorize the early levels by replaying them, your guns get more powerful so you clear the earlier levels faster, getting to the areas of the game you haven't before more quickly. Secondly when you get to the later stages of the game, getting killed once doesn't mean you are completely screwed – your ship comes back just as tough as it was when you died.

So hardcore gamers that relish the challenge can play the game, and plow through it fast. Us casual gamers who aren't so good at shooters, can level up, and beat the game a little slower. Now I love shooters, but I suck at them** So here is a game that even though I suck at shooters, I can still play it. It just takes me longer to get to the end. So what do you know, a hardcore game, with a minor tweak to game play, and it becomes casual accessible. So give props to Treasure.

Yes I have a copy I was a fan of the Saturn and imported a number of games for it. This was one of them.

** A phrase you will likely hear a lot on this blog, it applies to so many game types.

Now back to games – Running around a cave and shooting some dinosaurs.

Games played since last post

Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis)
Radiant Silvergun (Saturn)
Turok Dinosaur Hunter -Demo (360)
Devil May Cry 4 - Demo (360)
Rumble Roses XX(360)
Gauntlet Dark Legacy (PS2)
God Of War (PS2)
Conan (360)
Soul Calibur 2 (PS2)
Solitaire (PC)

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Snap Judgment Reviews 2: Electric Boogaloo

Outrun 2006 Coast 2 Coast
Here is a driving game for me. Lots of nifty visuals, fun little “sub games” when driving with the girlfriend. No trying to learn how to drive a real car, or get licenses (I hated Gran Futurism). On my list to buy.

Call of Duty 3
Another fun military shooter. I'm not a huge fan of real life settings in games, so I plan to just have the Cod and Mo series for my real life type shooters. This one was a blast.

Medal of Honor: Front line
See above. And I got it for 3 bucks, so it almost doesn't matter. If I get an hour or two fun out of it, it's paid for itself.

Prey
I love this game so far. I like the set up, with the main character rediscovering his beliefs seeming to be a major story arc. The weapons are cool looking; the alien organic weapons are just nifty. And the jukebox in the starting area played some really good tuneage (Heart, Foreigner, BOC).

Yeah - a bunch of shooters this time.

Now back to games – jumping on robots to set little animals free and collecting rings.

Games played since last post

Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis)

I won, I won !!!!

I beat a game, and achieved a milestone in another in the last week or two.

I beat the easy level of Earth Defense Force 2017. 53 levels of bug blasting fun. I call this out, because I often say “I play games, I don't beat them.” This attitude comes from the fact that I don't play games like hardcore players do – I sit down for a half hour or hour, and play, then move on. EDF is set up just for people like me – the longest mission took a half hour or so. So I could sit down play a level or three, save and go on. Another really cool bit is that your hit points go up by collecting things enemies drop when killed, and you can go back and play previous levels anytime you want. So when I first got the last mission, I needed a lot of hit points, so I could go back and play an earlier levels and gather hits. I did this for 4 levels, and then I beat the game. Cool.

There are a number different difficulty levels, and because every level you play gives you extra hits, and you can gather more weapons, after you beat the game on easy, you have much more hit points, and a bunch of weapons already, so you can actually play them on the next difficulty level, whereas if you tried to start there (or at least if I did) you die really really fast.

The second game is Rumble Roses XX (yeah yeah, I play the game in spite of the cheesecake, not because of it). Playing (on easy) I just got the singles title belt. Took me a bit, but I got it. And this game is set up in many ways like EDF. I can drop in, play a couple matches, save, and come back to it later. So I can just play for a little while each game, but I never lose where I am.

As a side note, the engine is the best wrestling engine I have ever played. I watched Professional Wrestling a lot when I was younger, so I always wanted a good wrestling game, and I have never really seen one that fit the way I like to play, and this engine is just what I want. The way unlocking things work really well for mimicking the source material; for example to unlock the bad guy (“heel” in wrestling parlance) of a character you have to get the character to having the title, then play another character, and win the title. When you win the title from your previous title holder, the heel version is unlocked – the character lost the title and went bad, a staple of Pro Wrestling.

Both these games highlight something – I play games differently than “hardcore” gamers. I read two reviews of Rumble Roses where they said “This is a great game, but it gets old after half an hour or an hour”. That really implies that these players sit down for hours on end and play. And I do that occasionally – I remember marathon sessions of Doom years ago – but that isn't my normal approach.

So yeah, I've found with the hard drives on the consoles, more and more games are ones you can play in smaller time chunks. And that is a good thing. With the “gamer” stereotype becoming less and less common, and more and more casual gamers are playing (thank you wii) gamer developers are starting to make more games that appeal to a broader market.

Now back to games – jumping on robots to set little animals free and collecting rings.

Games played since last post (long wait, so a big list here)

Half Life (PC)
Solitaire (PC)
Earth Defense Force 2017 (360)
Rumble Roses (360)
Outrun 2006 Coast 2 Coast (Xbox)
Star Trek Legacy (360)
Morrowind (Xbox)
Oblivion (360)
Virtual Fighter 5 (360)
Prey (360)
Call of Duty 3 (Xbox)
Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis)