Ok, Bit.Trip Beat. Awesome. Great game, one of my favorites on the Wii. Simple, punishing, and very rewarding. Now it's on the iPhone. Get it.
Nostalgia Filled Sunday
I grabbed a bunch of my favorite SNES ROMs a few weeks ago. Donkey Kong Country, F-Zero, Super Mario World, Uniracers, and of course, Tetris Attack. Ahhhhhh.....good old games.
Playing old SNES games always makes me think of my best friend Jason; he is responsible for my video game upbringing.
At the time, I had a NES, but Jason had a SNES and a Genesis, which meant we spent way more time over at his house playing games, than we did at mine. We spent hours playing great games, parked in front of his little Sony TV. My mom used to yell at me every time I came back from his house, because she knew we weren't playing outside like she wanted.
I'll always hold a special thought in my heart for Jason and the time we spent together growing up. It's one of those memories that I have that makes me smile. Every time I fire up a SNES game I think of him and the great times we had playing games then, and the great times we have playing games online today. We're lucky that we can still play games together, even though there's over 500 miles between us.
Playing old SNES games always makes me think of my best friend Jason; he is responsible for my video game upbringing.
At the time, I had a NES, but Jason had a SNES and a Genesis, which meant we spent way more time over at his house playing games, than we did at mine. We spent hours playing great games, parked in front of his little Sony TV. My mom used to yell at me every time I came back from his house, because she knew we weren't playing outside like she wanted.
I'll always hold a special thought in my heart for Jason and the time we spent together growing up. It's one of those memories that I have that makes me smile. Every time I fire up a SNES game I think of him and the great times we had playing games then, and the great times we have playing games online today. We're lucky that we can still play games together, even though there's over 500 miles between us.
Wipeout HD
I miss big beat techno. My friend Todd misses big beat techno. I know we're not the only two nerds out there that miss hooky drum breaks over squealing synth lines. Back in the day (the late 90's in this case) big beat was popping up in various areas, VW commercials (Fluke's Atom Bomb), and video games soundtracks.
The game soundtrack that really caught my ear a the time was Wipeout XL. It had TONS of acts that I love, The Future Sound of London, The Chemical Brothers, Photek, the previously mentioned Fluke, and the list goes on.
Typically, when you think of the direction of purchase, you buy the video game first and if you like the music, you pick up the soundtrack. With Wipeout, it was the other way for me; I LOVED the soundtrack, and that lead me to the game. I ended up not getting too involved in the game, I liked it, but I wouldn't put it on a top 10 list or anything. Unless it was a top 10 list of games with badass soundtracks. Or a top 10 list of games that rhyme with "shmipeout".
Cut to 2010, Sony announces Playstation Plus (PS+), and with it, you get Wipeout HD, among other things. I hadn't yet purchased the game; honestly, I was kind of waiting for it to go on sale, because 15 dollars seems a bit too much to pay for something that is more interesting to me musically than as a game. Looking back though, I'm glad I picked it up with the subscription to PS+.
I played it a few times this week on my lunch break (ah, working from home, can you be more awesome?) and really started getting into it.
The first thing that I thought was that it seems like it's finally on a hardware platform that it deserves to be on. Wipeout was always one of the more graphically impressive titles on the PS1, and they've all looked good, but now it looks GOOOOOD. To go further, the menu presentation and design of the game is amazing. It has such a great visual style that really puts you in the game's world. It's really nice to see that extra work put in the menus, title screens, trophy icons, etc.
As for actually playing the game (what? I have to play it?) it took me more races than I'd like to admit (at the novice level, no less) to get to the point where I felt like I knew the controls and how the game needed me to respond on the track. Once I was in the Wipeout bucket though, I really started catching on. I set the difficulty to the non-shameful mode of "Skilled" (not "Expert", what are you nuts?) and started winning races.
To the music end, Wipeout has shifted this soundtrack to more drum and bass, and (please don't punch me for saying this) illbient sound. Yeah, that's a techno nerd for you. It's good, but, I miss the punch of big beat.
All in all, it's a really solid game with a level of depth that I didn't expect. It's been out for almost 2 years now, and I can't believe I've overlooked it for so long.
The game soundtrack that really caught my ear a the time was Wipeout XL. It had TONS of acts that I love, The Future Sound of London, The Chemical Brothers, Photek, the previously mentioned Fluke, and the list goes on.
Typically, when you think of the direction of purchase, you buy the video game first and if you like the music, you pick up the soundtrack. With Wipeout, it was the other way for me; I LOVED the soundtrack, and that lead me to the game. I ended up not getting too involved in the game, I liked it, but I wouldn't put it on a top 10 list or anything. Unless it was a top 10 list of games with badass soundtracks. Or a top 10 list of games that rhyme with "shmipeout".
Cut to 2010, Sony announces Playstation Plus (PS+), and with it, you get Wipeout HD, among other things. I hadn't yet purchased the game; honestly, I was kind of waiting for it to go on sale, because 15 dollars seems a bit too much to pay for something that is more interesting to me musically than as a game. Looking back though, I'm glad I picked it up with the subscription to PS+.
I played it a few times this week on my lunch break (ah, working from home, can you be more awesome?) and really started getting into it.
The first thing that I thought was that it seems like it's finally on a hardware platform that it deserves to be on. Wipeout was always one of the more graphically impressive titles on the PS1, and they've all looked good, but now it looks GOOOOOD. To go further, the menu presentation and design of the game is amazing. It has such a great visual style that really puts you in the game's world. It's really nice to see that extra work put in the menus, title screens, trophy icons, etc.
As for actually playing the game (what? I have to play it?) it took me more races than I'd like to admit (at the novice level, no less) to get to the point where I felt like I knew the controls and how the game needed me to respond on the track. Once I was in the Wipeout bucket though, I really started catching on. I set the difficulty to the non-shameful mode of "Skilled" (not "Expert", what are you nuts?) and started winning races.
To the music end, Wipeout has shifted this soundtrack to more drum and bass, and (please don't punch me for saying this) illbient sound. Yeah, that's a techno nerd for you. It's good, but, I miss the punch of big beat.
All in all, it's a really solid game with a level of depth that I didn't expect. It's been out for almost 2 years now, and I can't believe I've overlooked it for so long.
JOE DANGER CAPITAL LETTERS
I have a cold. My head and various other areas hurt. I've already watched the last bit of season 2 of The Mighty Boosh, and Top Gear doesn't come back on until June 27th. What video game can make me feel better? Joe-Friggin-Danger!
Who doesn't love Excitebike? Morons and people with tapioca for thumbs, that's who. Not to mention that Motocross Maniacs 1 and 2 are two of my favorite Game Boy and Game Boy Color games ever. If you do anything questionably legal today, download a GB/GBA emulator and find yourself a Motocross Maniacs 2 ROM.
Anyway, Joe Danger, from Hello Games (CUTEST LOGO EVER) sure made me feel a bit better in my cold medicine-induced haze.
You play a washed-up stunt man, looking to redeem yourself, probably to pay off a bookie or something, but they don't really get into that. You steez your way through races, collecting stars, punching opponents, and being a all-around badass.
Basically, if you have a PS3 go get this game. If you need additional motivation to go get it, some of the developers are former Criterion folks, and I love them. Burnout Paradise. That says it.
Who doesn't love Excitebike? Morons and people with tapioca for thumbs, that's who. Not to mention that Motocross Maniacs 1 and 2 are two of my favorite Game Boy and Game Boy Color games ever. If you do anything questionably legal today, download a GB/GBA emulator and find yourself a Motocross Maniacs 2 ROM.
Anyway, Joe Danger, from Hello Games (CUTEST LOGO EVER) sure made me feel a bit better in my cold medicine-induced haze.
You play a washed-up stunt man, looking to redeem yourself, probably to pay off a bookie or something, but they don't really get into that. You steez your way through races, collecting stars, punching opponents, and being a all-around badass.
Basically, if you have a PS3 go get this game. If you need additional motivation to go get it, some of the developers are former Criterion folks, and I love them. Burnout Paradise. That says it.
Sword & Poker
No, it's not a Medieval-Vegas-themed porno, it's a horribly addictive iPhone game called Sword & Poker.
Now, let's start this out by me telling you that I fucking hate RPGs. I'm sorry. I know there are AMAZING RPGs out there, and epic stories and adventures and shit but, I drink way too much espresso and have way too short of an attention span (puppies!) to worry about which jewel I want to socket into a sword, helmet, or codpiece (I'm looking at you Diablo II). Just give me a goddamn rocket launcher, let me roll up on the set and shoot some aliens in the face. That's why they have faces, for shooting what with the rocket launchers.
OK, back on track. Since I have a hatred of RPGs, I typically shy away from games that involve any kind of RPG elements, such as turn-based battles, leveling up characters, and making choices about what magic cards/weapons/Pokemon/narwals to bring into battle. Basically anything game that gives you a numerical life counter makes my eyes glaze over. I've taken Calculus 2 (and 3!) enough times (5, I think?) to be done with numbers for a while.
Now given all of the above jackassery, to find myself playing, loving, and obsessing over this iPhone game is certainly out of character for me. It's called Sword & Poker and it might as well take one of my kidneys.
You play a weird looking girl (even though the game tells you that you're a dude, just like every other fucking game that isn't Tomb Raider). Seriously, bad haircut dude:
The game is played on a 5x5 grid (fucking numbers, I know, right?) and you make the best poker hand that you can between the four cards you are dealt and a row of three cards on the grid. You take turns with the enemy placing cards and making hands, the higher the hand, the more damage dealt, etc. It's not complicated; it's really easy to like, even for an RPG-hater like myself.
I've played through almost all of the levels (36), and actually did some grinding to get more money to buy a better weapon. Grinding, generally LAME, but in this game, I just went back to some of the earlier levels, kicked some ass, grabbed the loot, and loved every minute of it!
Even as I play it now, I still can't get over the fact that it's hooked me. It hasn't Peggle-hooked me (don't even get me started(I FUCKING LOVE PEGGLE)), but on the scale of giving me rabies to Peggle, I'd say it's an 8. Solid. Get it. I promise that your legs will fall asleep from sitting on the toilet too long at least once.
Now, let's start this out by me telling you that I fucking hate RPGs. I'm sorry. I know there are AMAZING RPGs out there, and epic stories and adventures and shit but, I drink way too much espresso and have way too short of an attention span (puppies!) to worry about which jewel I want to socket into a sword, helmet, or codpiece (I'm looking at you Diablo II). Just give me a goddamn rocket launcher, let me roll up on the set and shoot some aliens in the face. That's why they have faces, for shooting what with the rocket launchers.
OK, back on track. Since I have a hatred of RPGs, I typically shy away from games that involve any kind of RPG elements, such as turn-based battles, leveling up characters, and making choices about what magic cards/weapons/Pokemon/narwals to bring into battle. Basically anything game that gives you a numerical life counter makes my eyes glaze over. I've taken Calculus 2 (and 3!) enough times (5, I think?) to be done with numbers for a while.
Now given all of the above jackassery, to find myself playing, loving, and obsessing over this iPhone game is certainly out of character for me. It's called Sword & Poker and it might as well take one of my kidneys.
You play a weird looking girl (even though the game tells you that you're a dude, just like every other fucking game that isn't Tomb Raider). Seriously, bad haircut dude:
The game is played on a 5x5 grid (fucking numbers, I know, right?) and you make the best poker hand that you can between the four cards you are dealt and a row of three cards on the grid. You take turns with the enemy placing cards and making hands, the higher the hand, the more damage dealt, etc. It's not complicated; it's really easy to like, even for an RPG-hater like myself.
I've played through almost all of the levels (36), and actually did some grinding to get more money to buy a better weapon. Grinding, generally LAME, but in this game, I just went back to some of the earlier levels, kicked some ass, grabbed the loot, and loved every minute of it!
Even as I play it now, I still can't get over the fact that it's hooked me. It hasn't Peggle-hooked me (don't even get me started(I FUCKING LOVE PEGGLE)), but on the scale of giving me rabies to Peggle, I'd say it's an 8. Solid. Get it. I promise that your legs will fall asleep from sitting on the toilet too long at least once.
ModNation Racers
I picked up ModNation Racers for the PS3 (beware of lame auto-play music). It's kind of hard to resist a racing game that looks like two of my other favorite racing games, Mario Kart and TrackMania, bumped uglies and had a freaky lovechild.
You can create your own kart, player, and track, and share all of these with others. When I was online last night, someone had already uploaded a FLAWLESS Mario character, and a the A-Team van! It's only a matter of time before someone makes Laguna Seca or the Suzuka Circuit.
I built a track in about 5 minutes, just to see how everything worked, and it was great! It lets you get as granular as you would like for placing everything from scenery to boost strips, and also has a really sweet auto-fill feature that populates everything for you on a barebones track.
Oh and if you haven't played TrackMania Nations Forever, go get it right fucking now. It's here, on the right-hand side of the page. It's FREE, awesome, and easily one of the best PC racers out there. We used to play this after everyone was tired of getting destroyed in Quake 3 at after-office-hours LAN parties. How 1995 to 2005 is that? LAN party. Now we play with strangers on the internet and get called names. Anyway, TrackMania, great for adults, kids, you can play it with a controller, but it's great with the keyboard too.
Seriously, someone who is more talented and has more free time, needs to make Laguna. Now.
You can create your own kart, player, and track, and share all of these with others. When I was online last night, someone had already uploaded a FLAWLESS Mario character, and a the A-Team van! It's only a matter of time before someone makes Laguna Seca or the Suzuka Circuit.
I built a track in about 5 minutes, just to see how everything worked, and it was great! It lets you get as granular as you would like for placing everything from scenery to boost strips, and also has a really sweet auto-fill feature that populates everything for you on a barebones track.
Oh and if you haven't played TrackMania Nations Forever, go get it right fucking now. It's here, on the right-hand side of the page. It's FREE, awesome, and easily one of the best PC racers out there. We used to play this after everyone was tired of getting destroyed in Quake 3 at after-office-hours LAN parties. How 1995 to 2005 is that? LAN party. Now we play with strangers on the internet and get called names. Anyway, TrackMania, great for adults, kids, you can play it with a controller, but it's great with the keyboard too.
Seriously, someone who is more talented and has more free time, needs to make Laguna. Now.
Ginger Games of the Decade (GGOTD) - Part 2 - Gran Turismo 4
Gran Turismo 4 - 2005 - PS2
I've been playing Gran Turismo since the first day it was released on the PSOne, although in those days, we called it the PSX, because it was the nineties and we put an "X" into just about anything we could, that made it totally XTREME!!! To say it's one of my favorite games is a gross understatement; on the day it was released I was a college student, and in typical nerd-college-student fashion, after purchasing the game from Best Buy, I played it through the night, straight into morning, went to school, came home and played it until around midnight that night. Engineering Physics homework had to be put on hold, as I simply could not put it down (and ended up dropping out of college anyway (win-win!)).
The start of it all (ooooh, pixels!):
Anyone who knows me, knows that I am obsessed with cars; it's one of those childhood fascinations that I've never let go. To find out that Gran Turismo was coming out, included tons of cars I love, and tons I'd never even heard of, made me break out in a ginger fever of anticipation. When it was released, GT finally hit that butter zone that so many games before it missed, a racing simulation in the console market, and did it justice.
Once GT moved to the PS2, with GT3, I missed out, because I went with a GameCube instead of the PS2. Not a bad choice, depending on what you want to play and who you ask, but it meant that I had to fire up GT2 on my PSOne if I wanted to play a decent racing sim. I managed to hold off for years, until I bought a secondhand PS2 from a friend of mine in 2006. By then, GT4 had already been out for over a year, so the first thing I did was run out and get a used copy. I came home, hooked up the PS2, dropped in GT4 and finally began scratching the itch. Once I opened up the legendary Nurburgring Nordschleife, I bought a Lotus Elise 111 (In black, thank you), kept it bone stock and began learning every single turn of that 12.9 mile masterpiece.
Weapon of choice (looking better!):
Learning the Nordschleife in GT4 was one of the most rewarding and frustrating video game experiences I have had to date. At one point, the gameplay became similar to a very long/difficult stage on a platform game, you've got certain areas down, but other areas destroy you, and you start over again.
The Lotus has always been one of my favorite cars to drive in the GT series, and I can easily say that I lost weeks of my life lapping that track. Looking forward, it should be obvious to you that I peed a little bit when it was confirmed that GT5 will contain the Nurburgring tracks (and the McLaren F1!). I better take that day off of work.
Ok, maybe a week off:
I've been playing Gran Turismo since the first day it was released on the PSOne, although in those days, we called it the PSX, because it was the nineties and we put an "X" into just about anything we could, that made it totally XTREME!!! To say it's one of my favorite games is a gross understatement; on the day it was released I was a college student, and in typical nerd-college-student fashion, after purchasing the game from Best Buy, I played it through the night, straight into morning, went to school, came home and played it until around midnight that night. Engineering Physics homework had to be put on hold, as I simply could not put it down (and ended up dropping out of college anyway (win-win!)).
The start of it all (ooooh, pixels!):
Anyone who knows me, knows that I am obsessed with cars; it's one of those childhood fascinations that I've never let go. To find out that Gran Turismo was coming out, included tons of cars I love, and tons I'd never even heard of, made me break out in a ginger fever of anticipation. When it was released, GT finally hit that butter zone that so many games before it missed, a racing simulation in the console market, and did it justice.
Once GT moved to the PS2, with GT3, I missed out, because I went with a GameCube instead of the PS2. Not a bad choice, depending on what you want to play and who you ask, but it meant that I had to fire up GT2 on my PSOne if I wanted to play a decent racing sim. I managed to hold off for years, until I bought a secondhand PS2 from a friend of mine in 2006. By then, GT4 had already been out for over a year, so the first thing I did was run out and get a used copy. I came home, hooked up the PS2, dropped in GT4 and finally began scratching the itch. Once I opened up the legendary Nurburgring Nordschleife, I bought a Lotus Elise 111 (In black, thank you), kept it bone stock and began learning every single turn of that 12.9 mile masterpiece.
Weapon of choice (looking better!):
Learning the Nordschleife in GT4 was one of the most rewarding and frustrating video game experiences I have had to date. At one point, the gameplay became similar to a very long/difficult stage on a platform game, you've got certain areas down, but other areas destroy you, and you start over again.
The Lotus has always been one of my favorite cars to drive in the GT series, and I can easily say that I lost weeks of my life lapping that track. Looking forward, it should be obvious to you that I peed a little bit when it was confirmed that GT5 will contain the Nurburgring tracks (and the McLaren F1!). I better take that day off of work.
Ok, maybe a week off:
