Thursday 28 November 2013

Fallout (PC)

Fallout PC title card logoFallout PC title card logo
Today I'll be having a quick go of Fallout, the first game in the long running post-apocalyptic RPG series and the spiritual successor to Wasteland (which I totally failed to get anywhere in earlier this year).

In fact the game probably would've ended up released as Wasteland 2 if Interplay had been able to get hold of the rights from EA. But I think it worked out better that they didn't, seeing as now we've got both the next Fallout game and the reborn Wasteland sequel to look forward to. It's like the franchise has undergone mitosis and split into two separate organisms that have mutated in their own vastly different ways. Well okay it's more like three organisms if you count Fountain of Dreams, but I don't foresee a sequel to that one being kickstarted any time soon.

There are unofficial mods for this to increase the resolution and fix issues, but I'll be playing the GOG.com version entirely unmodded in glorious 640x480 res, just as it was in ye olden days.

Sunday 24 November 2013

Doom II: Hell on Earth (MS-DOS)

Doom 2 title screen dosDoom 2 title screen dos
Oh crap what have they done to Doomguy's hair? It looks like some demonic head-crab has attached itself to the back of his head.

It might seem like a strange choice to play Doom II when I already have Doom I on the site, as the games are fairly identical. But if I remember right this second game actually has a number of refinements over the original, such as... uh... well they give you an extra gun! Also there's a few new monsters I believe, a couple of extra pickups... plus they've turned off most (but not all) of those little red lights that used to be scattered across the blue region of the logo text.

I'll give it an hour or so anyway; long enough for me to find out first hand whether it's a true sequel or an expansion pack in disguise.

Wednesday 20 November 2013

Yo! Joe! (Amiga)

Yo! Joe! Amiga title screenYo! Joe! Amiga title screen
Has that guy stuck a pair of fake eyebrows over his bandana?

Today on Super Adventures I'm taking a look at semi-obscure platformer Yo! Joe! Beat the Ghosts by Scipio, creators of... well, Yo! Joe! I guess. I did a quick google search and it doesn't seem like they ever made anything else, at least not under that name. I played this game a while back on my humble Amiga and I know it got a PC DOS release, but I don't think it was ported to anything else in the end. Poor console owners apparently missed out on this one entirely.

One thing I'm absolutely sure of is that it has very little to do with G.I. Joe.

Sunday 17 November 2013

Hostile Waters (PC)

Hostile Waters title screenHostile Waters title screen
Today I'm taking a brief look at real-time action strategy shooter hybrid Hostile Waters, released in the first half of 2001 for the sole benefit of PC gamers. Sadly this one didn't get a console release, which is a shame because it really could've used the extra exposure. Critics seemed to love it, but it just didn't sell all that well for whatever reason and so it sunk into semi-obscurity.

But hey, I bought a copy! I did my part! I have vague memories of enjoying this one in my youth, but it's possible they've been warped by the dark corrupting influence of nostalgia. So I'm going to give it an hour or so to show me if it's got what it takes to win me over all over again.

I can say right now that the theme music won me over in about 20 seconds: youtube link.

(Click the pics to view the screenshots at resolutions unimaginable to those in the ancient times of the early 21st century.)

Friday 15 November 2013

F.E.A.R. (PC)

F.E.A.R. logo
Here's a game that nobody requested, but I'm going to play it anyway as I'm tired of it staring at me from my Steam library. "Why did you buy me if you're never going to play me?" it whispers inside my mind, because it's a creepy horror game and they can do that.

F.E.A.R. - First Encounter Assault Recon is a game by Monolith*, the people who made Blood, NOLF2: A Spy in H.A.R.M's Way and Contract J.A.C.K.. And yet somehow even after names like that, I honestly still can't believe that 'F.E.A.R.' was their first choice for the title.

*Not to be confused with Japanese developer Monolith Soft who made Baiten Kaitos, Xenosaga, Xenoblade and many other games with an X in their name.

(Click the images to supersize them to an epic 1280x960 res!)

Wednesday 13 November 2013

Frogatto & Friends (PC) - Guest Post

And now for someone completely different. Veteran guest poster Ocean returns from his 18 month exile with an in-depth report on an indie platformer that he played for a bit recently.


Now for Frogatto and Friends!


This one I would have never found or checked out on my own but Ray happened to mention that I should get it and I liked the art so I figured I'd give it a try! You can find it here: http://www.frogatto.com/ though it's not free. I got my own copy as part of a bundle.

(No pixel art was harmed during the making of this post. Click the pictures to view them at the correct, non-blurry, resolution.)

Tuesday 12 November 2013

Batman: Arkham City (PC)

Batman Arkham City PC title screen
Today on Super Adventures I'm taking a quick look at Batman: Arkham City, the second game in the universally beloved Arkham trilogy. Can't promise it'll be a quick read though.

Okay maybe the series isn't universally beloved, as a few people seem less than enamoured with the latest game, Arkham Origins. But this one's by the original team at Rocksteady, so I fully expect it'll turn out to be basically the same thing as 2009's Arkham Asylum, which I already played just a few months ago. In fact with any luck I'll be able to copy/paste most of the text over from that post and save myself some work.

I actually bought this a while back, way before the pay what you want Humble Bundle deal going on this fortnight, but I'm only just getting around to it now. Because I'm an idiot. The moral of the story: always always always wait for a sale. Or, you know, play your games when you buy the things.

(Click the screenshots to expand them to immense proportions. Well, they'll be twice the size anyway. Plus I'm running it in DirectX 9 mode with no tessellation or PhysX enhancements so it's not really going to be looking its best I'm afraid.)

Thursday 7 November 2013

Sonic Adventure 2 (PC)

Sonic Adventure 2 title screen logo PC
Today I've been forced (well, asked nicely) to take a look at Sonic Adventure 2, which is something like the 30th of the Sonic games if you count the spin-offs, but the very last to be released on a Sega console. Not that I'll be playing the Dreamcast version; I'm actually going to be checking out the Windows port released a mere 11 years later.

Even before its started it's already proven to be a massive disappointment to me: it didn't have the 'say-gah' jingle at the start.

Monday 4 November 2013

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (SNES)

Super Mario RPG super nintendo title screenSuper Mario RPG super nintendo title screen
Here's another requested game for y'all: Super Mario RPG, known in Japan as 'Super Mario RPG'. Good name that I reckon, let's you know exactly what you're in for. Plus it's always nice to get another game with 'Super' in the title onto the site.

Mario's been jumping around in video games since Donkey Kong back in 1981 so it's pretty amazing to me that it took him this long to get his own RPG. I mean by this point he'd already started his racing career in Super Mario Kart, played Yahtzee in Mario's Game Gallery, practised medicine in Dr. Mario and shown off his artistic side in Mario Paint; the guy's a real renaissance man.

He wouldn't get around to trying his hand at street fighting or, uh, partying until the N64 era though, which was actually just months away at the time this was released. As far as I know, this is the final Mario game on the Super Nintendo. It may well be Square's final game released on the console as well, in North America at least.

Semi-Random Game Box