Sunday 28 July 2013

Final Fantasy X (PS2)

Final Fantasy X title
Today I thought I'd take a quick look at Final Fantasy X on the PlayStation 2 and see what that's all about. Depending on who you talk to it seems to either be the best in the series since FFVII or a complete mess, so I'm curious about which side I'm going to end up on.

Final Fantasy X began development back in 1999, which was a crazy time for the franchise seeing as Square was also simultaneously working on Final Fantasy IX and Final Fantasy XI as well as the epic (financial) disaster that was the Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within movie. It's real shame that film wasn't put into development just a couple of years later, after the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter movies brought the fantasy genre into fashion, as we might have actually gotten a proper Final Fantasy movie out of Square Pictures before it vanished. With Chocobos and Black Mages and everything!

Instead the closest we've got is Advent Children and that's just sad.

Thursday 25 July 2013

Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel (SNES)

Today I'm having a brief go at Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel by Turok developers Iguana. This is actually a spin-off of mascot platformer Aero the Acro-Bat, which I don't recall being very fond of. Though I played the game two years ago so all I remember of it now is the clowns... so many clowns.

Monday 22 July 2013

Wizorb (PC)

Wizorb PC title screenWizorb PC title screen
One last PC game for a while, something light this time so that my computer doesn't explode into searing hot silicon shrapnel in this moderately ridiculous heat.

Today I'm loading up Wizorb for an hour or so (not to be confused with Sensible Software's Wizball, which is... something different.) This one was kindly donated to me by a friend who assured me that it was very very cheap, so I've adjusted my expectations accordingly.

Friday 19 July 2013

Rogue Legacy (PC)

rogue legacy title screen pcrogue legacy title screen pc
Today I feel compelled by fate to take a quick look at genealogical Rogue-lite Rogue Legacy (not to be confused with PlayStation 2 JRPG Rogue Galaxy, which is something presumably very different.)

All I know about this game is that it's supposed to be ridiculously difficult and that someone thought it was worth gifting a copy to me just so they could watch me suffer, so I imagine this is mostly going to be screenshots of me getting my ass kicked on the first level and crying.

Though you won't actually see the crying part show up in the screenshots.

Tuesday 16 July 2013

Half-Life 2 (PC)

Half-Life 2 title
The Steam Summer Sale (2013) is still dragging on, doing it's best to tempt me into poverty, so I figured that today I'd have a quick replay of the first hour or so of the first ever game I added to my Steam library to take my mind off the deals.

Steam wasn't actually launched with Half-Life 2 back in 2004, it predates the game by a whole year in fact, but this is what pulled the mainstream to the service, kicking and screaming (and whining on forums). This was the first single-player game to require online activation and man that was a lot of fun at the time.

(Click the pics to super-size them. Warning: this article contains more than your recommended daily allowance of words.)

Saturday 13 July 2013

McPixel (PC)

McPixel title screenMcPixel title screen
It's Steam Summer Sale time (2013) so I figured I'd play something vaguely Steam related today, and what better choice than the very first game to make it through Steam Greenlight onto the storefront: McPixel!

Actually now that I think about it Half-Life 2 would've probably been the smarter choice, but screw it I've already loaded this up now. It's too late, I'm on the title screen.

Despite the title this isn't actually another McDonalds tie-in game. Instead it's apparently inspired by legendary 80s TV series MacGyver, that everyone on Earth seems to have seen but me. Unfortunately all I know about the series is that the lead actor went on to play that bloke on Stargate originally portrayed by Snake Plissken, so any direct references will be completely lost on me. But I'm totally expecting to be combining things with things to do other things.

Wednesday 10 July 2013

Super House of Dead Ninjas (PC)

Super House of Dead Ninjas title screenSuper House of Dead Ninjas title screen
It's been months since I've had a 'super' game on the site, but this one definitely has a name worth waiting for. 'Super House of Dead Ninjas', it's like they made it especially for me. Plus it's got nice pixels, catchy music; hey this one might actually be good.

Look at me, I'm getting my hopes up already, like that's going to end well. Especially as this was a game request... from a friend. So chances are good the intent was to make me suffer.

There's some interesting options on that menu; you don't see map editors around too often these days. I think I should probably 'read the comic' first though.

Sunday 7 July 2013

Final Fantasy IX (PSX)

Final Fantasy 9 title screenFinal Fantasy 9 title screen
Holy crap, am I up to Final Fantasy IX already? Man, that's a lot of JRPGs. This one was the last of the original PlayStation era (and the first of the PlayStation era to not get a PC release, annoyingly.)

Alright, like always I only intend to take a quick look at this to get an idea of what the gameplay is like and how it's evolved from its predecessors, but it's an RPG so I'll probably end up grinding for five hours before I even get to the second dungeon cave.

Thursday 4 July 2013

Hameln no Violin Hiki / The Violinist of Hameln (SNES)

Hameln no Violin Hiki title screenHameln no Violin Hiki title screen
Today I'm taking a look at Hameln no Violin Hiki, a Super Famicom game based on the manga/anime series of the same name: ハーメルンのバイオリン弾き aka. The Violinist of Hameln. Or at least that's what wikipedia claims; I can't read Japanese, so for all I know it's lying to me to make me look stupid on the internet.

I realise there's an English fan translation out there, but I don't play them. Not because I don't think they're awesome, I just feel that if I'm going to be showing screenshots, I should be showing the game as it was sold, not a modified version. Plus I'm sure I'll be able to figure out the basics without all those words telling me what to do.

Monday 1 July 2013

Baldur's Gate (PC)

Today I'm going to have a quick look at classic BioWare title Baldur's Gate. Well, relatively quick; the game's an RPG so if I want a good idea of how it plays I'll probably be stuck playing it for days rather than hours.

There's a number of fantastic user developed mods for the game like Baldur's Gate Tutu and Baldur's Gate Trilogy that run the game content in a newer version of the Infinity Engine, while fixing bugs and tweaking the gameplay. Plus the game was recently given an official overhaul in the form of the Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition, so I've got a few options here. I'm not playing any of them though. This is going to be original old school vanilla Baldur's Gate, straight off the DVD, with all the original quirks, bugs and annoyances present.

(I'm deeply sorry that these are crappy compressed jpeg images, but clicking on them will reveal crystal clear lossless screenshots, for those that want them.)

Semi-Random Game Box