Dehumanizer | The Games of my Life

Author Archive

Back again… hopefully :)

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

Yes, I realize it’s more than 2 years since my last post here. Yes, I also realize that any readers I might have had are long gone. And yes, I admit that I tend to be extremely lazy after my initial “drive” to do something is gone (though it tends to return from time to time).

No matter. I have about a dozen posts I intend to write here in the next couple of weeks, and I will do just that.

Most of them will be about this blog’s original subject, where its title comes from: the “games of my life”, the ones I’ve played in my youth (though not always), and which still mean a lot to me (and not only due to nostalgia, though that certainly plays a part). I may also write about what I’m currently playing, although these days I have very little time to do so. But we’ll see.

Posted in The Games of my Life (site) | 2 Comments »

Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney – almost here…

Monday, February 18th, 2008

This morning’s highlight was an email in my Inbox from Play Asia, saying that Gyakuten Saiban 4, a.k.a. Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney has shipped!

To me, the Ace Attorney series is, by itself, more than enough reason to buy a Nintendo DS. I just can’t praise these games enough, with their quirky humor and old-school point & click adventure gameplay. It also helps that the western localizations are absolutely brilliant.

apollo-objects

Now for one of the longest weeks of my life.

Posted in 2000s games, Nintendo DS games | No Comments »

Something is moving around here…

Sunday, November 25th, 2007

If you look at the post below this one, the date will say (as of now) “7 months ago”, which can be a bit worrying. But, indeed, something has just changed around here, and this blog is not dead, so a new post is in order.

What’s new? Well, you have probably noticed the new logo, but there were other changes “below the hood”, to WordPress, K2, and several plugins. I also changed some of the fonts and text sizes; not huge changes, but I find that the text is now a little more pleasant to read. I also changed my author name back to “Dehumanizer”, as it’s the name I use in several gaming forums, and it is more common to use an alias in a gaming site than one’s real name (which isn’t really a secret — just check out my other blogs).

Other than that, the “big news” around here is that I intend to resume writing on this blog again. Really. No, I have not lost interest in games and the gaming scene in general, or in retrogaming. It’s just that I’ve been… distracted by other things. I’ve also been working (mostly…) at home for the past year, but now I am employed again, and, oddly enough, I find that blogging from work “feels” better to me than doing so from home. I hope I can do that and not let it affect my work.

One tiny problem is that I haven’t had money to buy many new games for the past year, and most of them were for the Wii or the DS. My gaming PC is still the same, and it would probably explode if I installed a new game on it…. or at least make it look like a slide show. But, hey, many of my posts in the past were about retrogaming, and people read them and commented on them, so there’s an interest in those out there. And those Spectrum or C64 games are, as everyone knows (or should know), timeless.

So, expect new, regular posts in the future, including reviews of classic games, comments about the gaming scene and gaming news, and personal stories about how particular games came into my life. Who knows, there may even be a real new post as early as tomorrow!

Posted in The Games of my Life (site) | 1 Comment »

The ZX Spectrum turns 25!

Monday, April 23rd, 2007

According to World of Spectrum (also seen on Slashdot), the Sinclair ZX Spectrum was released exactly 25 years ago.

I don’t need to tell you how important this little black rubber-keyed beast was to me, during my late childhood and early teens. It was my first “real” computer (technically, it was my father’s, but…), and not only did I spent thousands of hours playing hundreds of games on it, it was also the computer I learned to program (BASIC) on, when I was 9 or 10.

It was a time that seemed magical, with endless possibilities. I still remember the afternoon when my father introduced that (at the time) weird thing at home. I didn’t know it then, but it would be one of the most important and enduring influences on my life.

Twenty-five years. Doesn’t even seem that long ago.

And people are still creating new games for it… who’d have thought?

Tags:Computers, sinclair-zx-spectrum, zx-spectrum
Posted in Computers | No Comments »

Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords

Monday, April 23rd, 2007

For the last few days, the only cartridge inside my Nintendo DS has been this game: Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords, by Infinite Interactive, authors of the Warlords and Warlords Battlecry series.

From everything I’ve seen, this game has had very little promotion, and has been relatively hard to find. But most reviews have been quite good (either 8/10 or 9/10), and most people online speak highly of the game as well.

If I was to concisely explain to someone what the game is like, I’d say the following:

50% Bejeweled (the basic “match 3″ game);
30% Warlords Battlecry 3 (the setting, the RPG elements);
20% Magic: the Gathering (the accumulating of several colors of mana to cast spells, the damage system).

(more…)

Tags:2000s games, Nintendo DS games, PSP games, puzzle-quest
Posted in 2000s games, Nintendo DS games, PSP games | 1 Comment »

RE4 for Wii: dreams come true?

Wednesday, April 4th, 2007

From IGN:

After rumours that a Wii version of Resident Evil 4 was appearing on the release schedules of Japanese retailers, the latest issue of Famitsu has confirmed the tittle-tattle and gives a few details about the Wii installment.

Imaginatively titled Bio Hazard 4: Wii Edition, this updated version features new Wiimote-specific controls. These include using the remote to aim weapons, moving the control to reload and using a knife by waggling the controller.

According to Famitsu it also features Ada’s missions from Resi 4 on PS2 and comes with a trailer for the upcoming Umbrella Chronicles, which is also on Wii.

A Capcom representative was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.

I hope it includes true widescreen support as well. This is a dream come true.

EDIT: More details (though no definitive confirmation yet) here and here.

EDIT2: According to Famitsu, it is indeed confirmed, at least in Japan… and does include widescreen. Yes!

Yet another EDIT: More info here.

Tags:re4, resident-evil-4, wii
Posted in 2000s games, External articles, Wii games | 2 Comments »

Dream game: Resident Evil 4 for the Wii

Friday, January 5th, 2007

Have you thought about how great it would be?

And Capcom could produce it in an instant. They’d just have to:

- use all the content from the GameCube version
- add all the extra content from the PS2 version, updated to have GC-like graphics and lighting (otherwise, the extras would look visibly worse than the rest of the game)
- add widescreen mode (I think the PS2 version already includes it)
- add wiimote + nunchuk support.

Advantages:

- it would look better than most current Wii games (including Zelda: TP and Red Steel)
- most of it is already done, so development time and costs would be low
- the game really begs for wiimote control.

Me, I’d buy it in a second, even though I already have the GC version.

Posted in 2000s games, GameCube games, Wii games | 3 Comments »

The Wiimote class action suit

Friday, December 22nd, 2006

There’s not a lot to say about the recent class action suit against Nintendo.

What the news media are reporting is that the wrist straps are “faulty”, which, during play, caused them to break, which in turn made the wiimotes “fly out of the user’s hands”, breaking TVs and possibly simply injuring people.

In reality, this is not more than a bunch of dishonest idiots trying to get rich quickly without working, and taking advantage of the ease (and chances of working) of stupid lawsuits in America. If you can’t produce, steal from those who do.

Just a few facts:

- Nintendo warns users repeatedly not to let go of the wiimote while playing. Indeed, they might not have included the wrist strap at all. They did so as a courtesy, because they knew some people would get too excited while playing.

- Anyone who lets go of the wiimote is not following the usage instructions. In a sane world, this should cause the suit to be thrown out immediately.

- Nintendo has already offered to replace straps. Again, they didn’t need to do this; they could simply say that, if users follow the instructions, straps won’t even be needed. But they are being nice.

- This suit has as much merit as someone sticking a fork in their eye, and then suing the fork’s maker for not putting a “Do not stick in eye“ warning on it. Companies should make safe products, yes, but they aren’t responsible for stupidity. It’s revolting how people can be stupid idiots, and be rewarded for it.

- Finally… You’ve got to see this comic, and this one as well.

Posted in Consoles | 1 Comment »

Bad news reporting: The Virtual Console Archive

Thursday, December 21st, 2006

Since I bought my Wii, a site I’ve visited regularly is The Virtual Console Archive, which has news and reviews related — you guessed it — to the VC.

However, in one of the last posts, there’s so much ignorance that I’m not even sure it’s a joke or not. I believe it isn’t, however. The post is called Commodore 64 games to join the Virtual Console, and it includes this gem:

All in all quite underwhelming news. The Commodore 64 isn’t even a console! The games have dated too much for them to be worth downloading unless they were 50 or 100 Wii Points at the most. At least that way you could spend your change on a novelty bit of nostalgia and fill up yet another of the 48 channel slots!

I don’t even know where to begin.

Isn’t a console? So what? I’d see it as “the VC isn’t limited to console games! Cool!”. Besides, the C64 was turned into a console in 1990 (by then, it was admittedly too late, and it wasn’t successful), simply by removing the keyboard and disk interface.

Have dated too much? I can’t believe this one – either this is a joke, or the reviewer never had anything but consoles in his life. The C64 compares favorably to the NES! Better graphics, better sound, and more varied game genres. In fact, a lot of C64 games were converted to the NES, and the ports were usually much worse. The C64, meanwhile, could do a Super Mario Bros. perfectly well. If C64 games were to cost “50 or 100 Wii Points at the most”, then they’d have to give NES games for free.

Really, to suggest that the C64 is more “dated” than the NES… Ah, youngsters, these days…

Oh, and one more thing: unlike what the news (and I’ve seen it in other places, too) suggests, this is not “C64 games coming to the VC”. This is a company (System 3) releasing ports and remakes (of their own games, and Epyx’s) for the VC (and they’re releasing some for the DS and PSP, too). The Virtual Console isn’t just a means for playing old console games; new games will be released for it (much like the Xbox Live Arcade), and in this case some of them are remakes or ports of old games. It doesn’t mean that we’ll be regularly seeing new C64 games there, among NES games, SNES games, and so on.

Posted in Commodore 64 games, Consoles, Misc stuff, Wii games | 4 Comments »

Nintendo Wii: first impressions

Tuesday, December 12th, 2006

NOTE: the following is translated and adapted from a post of mine on the Nintendo DS – Portugal forum.

I have it at home, since yesterday.

I’ve been playing with it for several hours, now. Unfortunately, my brother (who is the one who bought it for me; I wasn’t in the country on release day) was only able to buy the basic package: the console itself, Wii Sports, one wiimote and one nunchuk.

I haven’t been able to explore Wii Sports thoroughly, as my TV is in my bedroom, and the bed is in the way. I’m going to move the TV to the living room today or tomorrow, hopefully. I’ve won a couple of tennis games (which is much more fun than you’d imagine), but the “real thing” will be when I can play with more room, and with more people (which will require more wiimotes, and they’re completely sold out right now).

Besides disk-based games, the Wii supports several channels, and can go online. Connecting it to the Internet was extremely easy; there were no compatibility problems with my Linksys WRK54G router, which I already use for the Nintendo DS. The wireless range seems to be better than that of the DS, and it now supports WPA encryption (which I’m not using, though, because of the DS – only WEP there). As soon as you go online, the console updates its firmware, which takes a little while, but no effort at all.

News and weather channels are available on the channel selection screen, but they’re not working yet; according to Wikipedia, they’ll be up and running either this month, or in January. Same thing about the Opera browser, whose release date is apparently December 23.

One of the most interesting channels is, of course, the Virtual Console. Apparently, new games will be released every friday. I’ve already bought a few: Donkey Kong (NES) due to nostalgia (even though it’s a relatively poor version, quite inferior to the original arcade), F-Zero (SNES), Super Mario 64 (N64), Donkey Kong Country (SNES), Sonic the Hedgehog (Mega Drive), Super Star Soldier (PC Engine) and Dungeon Explorer (PC Engine). A special note about Mario 64: I never had an N64, and, though I had already played the game using emulators, and later on the DS, I had never played it using an analog controller (in this case, a GameCube one) until yesterday. And the game really needs one; it’s like I was playing a different game! Moves and tricks that I had to struggle with on the DS come up absolutely naturally here. The N64 version doesn’t include the DS extras (3 new characters, more stars, better graphics), but this game really requires an analog stick…

A couple of PC Engine games support 5 players at a time. Dungeon Explorer is a more complex Gauntlet clone, and Bomberman 93 probably needs no introduction. Since the Wii can only support 4 wiimotes or classic controllers at a time, and up to 4 GameCube controllers, you need to use a combination of both. I have 4 GC controllers, so I will, hopefully, be able to play 5-player Dungeon Explorer after the next lunch here.

One warning: some (not all) NES, SNES and Mega Drive games (not PC Engine, oddly enough) weren’t, originally, properly converted from NTSC (60 Hz) to PAL (50 Hz); they had black borders on the screen, and were about 13% slower than the original versions. Since they’re perfectly emulated here, and the European Wii uses emulated PAL versions, the problem persists. If you’ve played the original versions and were OK with them, you won’t see a difference here, but it’s a pity that Nintendo didn’t do the extra work of fixing this problem… after all, the Wii supports 60 Hz PAL, unlike the original consoles.

And that’s it for now. When they’re available again, I hope to buy Wii Play (which includes an extra wiimote), a second nunchuk, and a couple of classic controllers. As for games, I want Zelda, Red Steel, DBZ: Tenkaichi 2 and Call of Duty 3. It’s likely that I’ll only be able to get most of those next year, though…

Tags:nintendo_wii, wii
Posted in Consoles, Wii games | 4 Comments »