Super AiG Screenshots of the Year: 2023

It's that time of year again when I have to update that picture up there to change the number. You've reached my annual Super Adventures Screenshots of the Year 2023 article, where I look back through the hundreds and hundreds of screenshots I've taken over the past year to find the absolute best. Or the least rubbish, depending on your point of view.

I have to be honest, this isn't the best selection I've put together as I just didn't cover many games this year. It was easy to find something worth showing off back in 2011 when I had 500+ games to draw from, but it's been a lot more challenging for me in a year with only 500+ screenshots on the site.

Uh, what I mean is that this is going to be an awesome article full of amazing pictures and they'll even have writing underneath. Plus some of them will be GIFs!

Super Adventures: Game Over - Continued

This week on Super Adventures, I'm back with another set of game over pictures that weren't quite good enough to make the cut when I wrote my first Game Over article!

Yeah, I know it seems like filler, and it kind of is. But I worked really hard getting all the pictures! You think it's easy to lose in this many games? I had to train for years to be this bad. Also it's been three years since the last Game Over article and like three months since my last post on the site, so I feel like I've left you waiting long enough for this.

Marvel's Avengers: The Definitive Edition (PC)

Developer:

Crystal Dynamics

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Release Date:

2020

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Systems:

Win, XBOne, Series S/X, PS4, PS5, Stadia

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm writing about Marvel's Avengers, because it's about to be delisted on Steam and is super cheap right now. Honestly, this fell off my radar the moment I learned they were going the games as a service route with it, so I was very surprised to find myself handing over actual money for it and now I own it I guess!

My curiosity got the better of me when I learned that they'd given players the entire shop's worth of content and freed it from its microtransactions. Plus I had to buy it now or I'd never get another chance, as they've gone and delisted it from online shops. I hate it when they do that.

I was only intending to put the game on for a few minutes and see how it plays, I wasn't expecting to use my screenshots/video to write about it for the internet. In fact, I wasn't even expecting it to run. So the graphics have been left at their absolute lowest to squeeze the maximum FPS out of it. This is as bad as the game can possibly look, at least without some extra effort messing with INI files or whatever. I know people work horrifying miracles sometimes.

SPOILER WARNING: I'm going to be playing the first few hours, so you may learn a lot of stuff here you might not want to know about the story.

Universe (Amiga CD32) - Part 2

This week on Super Adventures, I'm still playing 90s point-and-click adventure Universe, because I want to be done with it. I played the demo years ago, when I was young enough for it to be imprinted into my brain and stick there. But I never played through the full game so I have no idea how the story ends and I'm just as clueless about the middle.

I mentioned in PART ONE that I wasn't going to spoil the ending, but I've changed my mind. Because we all deserve closure on this. That means I should give you a SPOILER WARNING. Oh, you should also know that despite what it says in the title, most of these screenshots are from the MS-DOS version of the game, as I switched systems. Not that it makes much difference.

Universe (Amiga CD32) - Part 1

Developer:

Core Design

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Release Date:

1994

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Systems:

Amiga, CD32, MS-DOS

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm playing Universe, by the makers of Rick Dangerous, Curse of Enchantia and later Tomb Raider. But Curse of Enchantia is the most relevant, seeing as this is a point-and-click adventure game.

Universe got fantastic scores from magazines back in the day, lots of 90s and high 80s... well, except for Amiga Power and Amiga Format, they both totally trashed it. Amiga Power gave it 21%! I've played the demo before so I have an idea of what my opinion's going to be, but I'll see if it changes as I get further into the story.

I should give you a SPOILER WARNING, as I'm going to be playing through a lot of the game. In fact, I'm going to try to finish it, though I'll try not to give the whole thing away. I'd suggest YouTube if you want to see the ending, I'm just showing off things that catch my interest and whining about the things that annoy me.

Crysis 2 (PC)

Developer:

Crytek

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Release Date:

2011

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Systems:

Windows, PS3, Xbox 360

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm playing Crysis 2, the second game in the Crysis trilogy. (Warhead's a stand-alone expansion so it doesn't count.)

I also played the original Crysis this week so you might be wondering 'Why the rush?' Well, the game starts on the 23rd of August 2023, so it actually takes place today. So I should really get on with writing about the game and stop wasting time with this intro.

Actually, there are a couple of things I should mention here. First, the game's story was written by Richard K. Morgan, author of the novel Altered Carbon. He also wrote the Syndicate shooter that came out the following year. Second, I want to mention how the game's theme is kind of one note. Well, two notes I suppose. It's like an alarm. It's one of a handful of songs on the soundtrack by Hollywood composers Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe, and honestly I prefer Lorne Balfe's theme to that new Dungeons & Dragons movie, Honor Among Thieves.

Alright, I'm not going to be able to get away with just playing an hour or two of this like I usually do, so expect SPOILERS for the entire first half of the game.

Crysis (PC)

Developer:

Crytek

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Release Date:

2007

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Systems:

PC, PS3, Xbox 360

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm finally getting around to the notorious Crysis!

I thought about buying the game a while back, but I was put off by its pain-in-the-ass DRM and I just didn't think about it again until now. These days though it's a non-issue, with the DRM-free GOG release and the Steam version getting patched. Also, there's that Remastered edition... that I won't be playing. I want to play the legit original experience! Though just getting it to run at all would be nice.

Crysis is infamous for two reasons and the main one is its system requirements. Back in 2007 it was supposed to be the prettiest game ever made, and I can believe that. The catch was that people had to wait until PC hardware had caught up to it before they could put the graphics settings up.

There will be SPOILERS here for a significant amount of the game's story and they start right now. That's because the second thing that the game's infamous for is the twist that the gameplay takes in the second half. I'm usually happy to show off the first hour or so of a game and then quit, but it doesn't seem right for me to write about Crisis and not bitch about the alien levels.

Lotus Turbo Challenge Games

This week on Super Adventures, I'm taking a trip back to the past... back to the early days of Super Adventures, when I thought it was acceptable to cover a bunch of old-school arcade-style sprite-based racing games in one article. I'd give them each three screenshots and write things like "Dodging cars is hard!" and "Hey, I got first place!" underneath.

I eventually learned my lesson and realised that these kinds of games weren't going to give me much to work with. You have a sprite of a car and you slide it left and right to get around the other cars and obstacles, while also trying to avoid flying off the track on the turns. There, I just described all of them.

But I could never resist showing off screenshots full of art, and it occurs to me that I never got around to covering the biggest stars in the genre. No Out Run, no Road Rash, not even Lotus 1-2-3. Uh, I mean Magnetic Fields' legendary racing trilogy, not the legendary spreadsheet software. Speaking of spreadsheets, did you know Lotus made a car called the Excel?

Anyway, I'm going to play some Lotus games and I'm going to show off all the artwork, and if I can find anything to write about them, well that's a bonus. Screenshots will be from the Amiga 500 versions unless specified otherwise, though I will have a look at some of the ports as well. These games made their way onto all kinds of systems, like the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, C64, PC... though not the NES or SNES for some reason. I've no idea why Nintendo got left out.

There was another game called Lotus Challenge released on the PS2 in 2001, but that's entirely unrelated so I won't be playing that one.

Jade Empire (Xbox) - Part 2

Today on Super Adventures, I'm getting back to Jade Empire for the second and final time. If you want to read part 1 CLICK HERE.

I'm still looking for a town with sidequests and a big problem I can solve, so I can get a good impression of what the game's actually like before I turn it off. Something like Knights of the Old Republic's Taris, or Mass Effect's Citadel... except smaller hopefully.

This means there will be some SPOILERS here for the first few hours of the game, but nothing too serious I expect.

Jade Empire (Xbox) - Part 1

Developer:

BioWare

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Release Date:

2005

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Systems:

Xbox, PC, Mac, Android, iOS

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm checking out a game that I'm absolutely sure I've probably played before. I just can't remember doing it, or even how it plays exactly. I feel like I must have gotten past the tutorial and then ran around the starting area for a bit before turning it off.

I have to wonder what Jade Empire did to lose my interest so quickly as I can usually sink hours into a BioWare RPG. This was their 7th game, by the way, coming between Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect. It's what they were working on while Obsidian was making the considerably higher-rated KOTOR 2. Wait, is that actually true or am I just making a huge assumption there?

Okay, I've done the research and according to Metacritic, Jade Empire actually scored just a little bit better than KOTOR 2, on Xbox anyway. Jade Empire falls a bit behind on PC for some reason. I'd check their scores on PlayStation 2 and GameCube but they appear to have neglected to port the games to either system. Possibly because it came out in 2005, near the end of that console generation... or possibly because it was published by Microsoft.

Anyway, I know what BioWare games are like, so my plan is to keep playing long enough to find the first proper quest hub town and sort out their big crisis. Assuming that it even has towns. I'll be playing the original Xbox version, but I'll be running it on an Xbox One through the magic of backwards compatibility because it'll be easier to get video out of it that way. Plus it might even boost the framerate and resolution a bit.

Dusk (PC)

Developer:

David Szymanski

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Release Date:

2018

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Systems:

Win, macOS, Linux, Switch

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm taking a look at indie first-person boomer shooter Dusk! I've been meaning to get around to this for a while now. Partly because it's a critically acclaimed, highly recommended game in a genre I love, partly because it was a present and I should probably play the games I've been gifted!

I've been avoiding learning anything about the game so I'm going in fairly blind. I didn't even know it had a multiplayer mode called 'Duskworld'. Though it doesn't feature co-op or bots and I think I'm going to stick with the single-player mode. The regular one I mean, not 'Endless' mode, which seems like it'd take a while.

Not that I'm planning to finish the whole game. I'm just going to stick with it for an hour or so to see if I'm satisfied with its shooting.

Grand Theft Auto III (PS2)

Developer:

DMA Design

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Release Date:

2001

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Systems:

PS2, Xbox, PC, Mac, Android, iOS, Fire OS

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm finally getting around to legendary sandbox crime simulator Grand Theft Auto III! I wrote about GTA 1 in 2014 and GTA 4 in 2016, but since then the site has suffered 7 long years of GTAlessness.

A few things have happened during that time, like GTA 3 getting reverse engineered by fans so they could enhance it for modern hardware! Take-Two weren't keen on this though and shut the RE3 project down. Then they delisted the game from online stores and replaced it with the Definitive Edition Unreal Engine remake, which was hilariously half-assed and broken. At this point you can't buy either version in Steam, as they're selling it for the Rockstar Games Launcher instead.

I've played GTA 3 before, but I've never actually finished the game and it wasn't for a lack of trying. I beat Vice City, San Andreas, GTA 4, The Saboteur, Sleeping Dogs and all the old Saints Rows, but this was just a little too tough for me. Back then anyway. Can I actually manage to reach the ending this time and finally get some closure on the GTA that got away? The answer is... no, because I'm only going to play it for an hour or two. Sorry!

Also, I'm going to be playing the classic PlayStation 2 version of the game, so if you were hoping to see some hilarious Definitive Edition screenshots I'm going to have to disappoint you. I ain't paying that much for a bad version of a game I already own. But is the PS2 game the good version? Is any version of the game still worth playing in 2023? I'm probably the wrong person to answer that last question as I'm obviously unstuck in time, but I'll see what it's like and share some screenshots as I go.

Perfect Dark (Xbox 360)

Developer:

Rare

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Release Date:

2000

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Systems:

N64, Xbox 360

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm playing the spiritual successor to Rare's legendary N64 FPS GoldenEye 007: the slightly less legendary Perfect Darkﾞ!

It came out three years later for the same console, runs on the same engine, and was developed by a lot of the same people, so it's basically GoldenEye 2 (or GoldenEye 008?) There were proper sequels to GoldenEye, but Rare had been outbid by EA and decided they'd rather do their own thing anyway, so Black Ops gave us third person shooter Tomorrow Never Dies on the PlayStation and Eurocom got to make the next first person N64 Bond shooter, The World is Not Enough. Both considerably less legendary.

Perfect Dark was was released late in the N64's life and was so ambitious that it required the Expansion Pak installed in order to access 65% of its content. Though even with double the RAM under the hood, the game still suffers from framerate issues. Fortunately I'm mostly going to be playing the remastered Xbox 360 version on the Xbox One, which has about 2000 times the RAM. I would've played the PC version and used a mouse but to this day the game still hasn't got a PC port.

If you're wondering why there's an N behind the title despite the letter not appearing in either word, that's so that the Nintendo logo can spin around and morph into the logo! It's a little different in the Xbox Live Arcade version, as 4J Studio's logo takes Nintendo's place. Not a lot of Nintendo logos on Microsoft games I've noticed. If you're wondering why there's a dakuten (ﾞ) after the K... I've got no idea. They thought it'd look cool I guess. Like how Street Fighter II′ has a dash.

Alright I'll put this on and give it an hour or two then. I used to love the game but I can't remember if there's anything notable I should be playing up to (mostly because it's the multiplayer I was obsessed with), so I'm just going to play the first few levels and document my findings.

Octopath Traveler II (PC) - Part 2

This week on Super Adventures, I'm writing some more about Octopath Traveler II!

Like here's a fun fact: did you know that if you press that button it tells you to press on the title screen it turns the background clips from day to night? It's like how you can change the background of the Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater title screen, it's great. It also replaces the ridiculously upbeat and adventurous main theme with a mellow piano version.

I'll be playing to the end of Temenos the Cleric's second chapter, but I'm going there the long way. It'll be a bit of a struggle to get through it alone so I'll have to travel the world and assemble a crew first. I'll be vague about events though as it'd be a shame to spoil such a story-heavy game.

This is the second half of this article. If you want to go back to PART ONE instead, click the text.

Octopath Traveler II (PC) - Part 1

Developer:

Square Enix and Acquire

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Release Date:

2023

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Systems:

Windows, PS4, PS5, Switch

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This week on Super Adventures, I'm playing something that's relatively new for a change. In fact it came out only a couple of weeks ago. It's retro JRPG sequel Octopath Traveler II!

I typically like to write about the first game in a series before covering the sequels, but I've jumped straight to game #2 this time and there are two very good reasons for that. The first reason is, I've already played Octopath 1 and I couldn't get into it to be honest. I tried a few of the characters, hoping to find one that caught my interest, but I found myself skipping their cutscenes just to get on with it and once you start doing that in a story-driven RPG you might as well quit.

The second reason is that this was a surprise gift from an absurdly generous friend! I intend to be entirely honest about what I think about it, but if I say anything negative you should yell at me for being rude and ungrateful.

I usually play games for about an hour, but that wouldn't even get me out of the game's demo, so I decided to give it about 30 hours instead. If you're wondering why this article's so late, that's your answer. I've split it into two parts, with part 1 covering one character's first chapter, and part 2 jumping around some other stuff I thought was worth talking about. So you'll see some stuff from later on but I shouldn't end up really spoiling anything that isn't in the demo.

Kid Chaos (Amiga) - Part 2 - Guest Post

Previously on Kid Chaos, danger was lurking around every turn as the displaced caveman fought off rats, bats, bunnies and bees in his frantic escape from THE SECRET -GARDEN-. Will mecha-neko ever live to see world 2-1? Read on!

Kid Chaos (Amiga) - Part 1 - Guest Post

This week on Super Adventures, I've captured guest poster mecha-neko and teleported him to the distant past of 1994 to play a game about a caveman in the future. It's classic Amiga platformer Kid Chaos.

Hello everyone! It's time to dig up something really prehistoric!

Developer:

Magnetic Fields

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Release Date:

1994

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Systems:

Amiga 500, Amiga CD32

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This is Kid Chaos. The apex of Amiga platform action. The one where it all comes together. Years of technological experimentation, observation and innovation have led to this moment.

The title screen alone is lush as heck. The Amiga hardware can select 32 colours at once and this image displays 110 of them. The clouds all drift past at different speeds and everything, but you'll have to take my word for that as the .gif would be huge! It's like something you'd see on an AGA machine, but this is an A500 game.

If you want to see what all the fuss is about, read on!

Kid Chaos (Amiga) - Guest PostPart 1 - Part 2

Body Harvest (N64)

Developer:

DMA Design

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Release Date:

1998

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Systems:

N64

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I've always wondered why this space station has a skull painted on it. Up there at the top, next to the dish.

Anyway it's Super Adventures' 12th birthday today yesterday, so I figured I should write about a video game or something to celebrate. It has to be something a little bit special though, so I'm checking out DMA Design's notorious time-travelling alien-slaying action-adventure Body Harvest, on the Nintendo 64.

One thing I like about this era is that console designers were all making the leap to full 3D using different approaches, so you can tell an N64 game from a PlayStation game instantly just by looking at a screenshot. Even multiplatform games look different on each system. Body Harvest is a true N64 exclusive though. In fact it was supposed to be a launch title for the console, but original publisher Nintendo wasn't impressed with what DMA were coming up with. It didn't make it onto the system until two years later, when Gremlin Interactive bought DMA and published it themselves in the EU.

In fact it ended up getting released a month or so before DMA Design's other N64 game Space Station Silicon Valley. Except in America, where the two games were released a day apart! This was a bit of a problem as it meant they both came out right before The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Nintendo fans were saving their pennies for what was certainly going to be the safer bet. Then a year later DMA released Grand Theft Auto 2, which was the beginning of the company's 'making nothing but GTA games for the rest of all eternity' era. Well okay they released Manhunt in 2003 shortly after becoming Rockstar North, but aside from that it's been all GTA as far as the eye can see.

Okay I'm going to do what I always do: try the game for an hour or so, type my reactions under screenshots, and then write a long review at the end with an unearned tone of authority, as if experiencing an hour of gameplay is enough to really get what a game is like.