Now Playing | The Games of my Life

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Current stuff: DS games, Wii

Published

2 years ago

in Consoles, Nintendo DS games and Now playing

. 0 Comments

Sorry about the recent lack of posts. I’ll try to post more in the future.

I’ve been playing mostly Nintendo DS games, these days. My PC is too old to play any recent PC game (I’d love to play Medieval: Total War 2. :(), so there’s nothing new there. If it wasn’t for the DS, life wouldn’t have meaning.

On my own, I’ve been playing Gyakuten Saiban 2, also known as Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney: Justice for All. I bought it from Play Asia, as the Japanese version includes a full English translation. I love these games, by the way, and couldn’t recommend them more, especially if you love adventure games with a great sense of humor. You shouldn’t be afraid of reading, though.

Multi-player-wise, I’ve been spending my time with Mario Kart DS, 42 All-Time Classics (called Clubhouse Games in the U.S.) and Big Brain Academy. All those are fantastic with 4 players or more.

I have to say that I’m quite enthusiastic about the Nintendo Wii. Everything I’ve seen about it has been great. I’m in Europe, so it won’t be released until December 8th… well, it’s just a couple of weeks. Hopefully, I’ll be able to buy it on launch day, because unfortunately I live in an ignorant, Playstation-obsessed country, and the Wii will probably be less successful that it’s been everywhere else.

If all goes well, I’ll get Zelda: Twilight Princess on day one as well. And, who knows, some Virtual Console games, too…

Second Impressions: Mario Kart DS

Published

Dehumanizer

2 years, 11 months ago

in Nintendo DS games and Now playing

. 6 Comments

Played a lot of it this weekend.

I’m getting better at it - better than I ever was in any previous version (including Double Dash!!, which I’ve had for almost 2 years).

The sense of speed is amazing, especially in such a small screen. No matter what happens in the game, I have yet to experience a slowdown.

I’ve unlocked all tracks in the 50cc difficulty, and will focus on 100cc races next. I’ve also played several games online, though more than half were against just one opponent - it seems that Nintendo still has a few wrinkles to iron out. Also, most people out there seem to be better than me, though I’ve noticed that some of them don’t do the turbo dash at the beginning of a race.

Unfortunately (warning: incoming rant), I live in a country where the idea that “Nintendo is for kids” is stronger than in about everywhere else, which means that I don’t (personally) know anyone else with a DS (I probably would if I was a kid, but I’m 31). I really wish I could play 8-player matches using short distance wi-fi. But Portugal is all about the PS2, and now the PSP. (though most people I know with a PSP don’t use it for games…)

Anyway, this game is more than worth buying - it’s one you’ll be playing for a lot of time, and if you’re lucky to have friends who can see that there’s life beyond Sony, you’ll be in heaven.

Finished Path of Radiance; now playing…

Published

Dehumanizer

2 years, 11 months ago

in 2000s games, 90s games, GameCube games, Now playing and PC games

. 3 Comments

… Ultima VII! Using Exult, an open source Ultima VII engine for modern operating systems (because the original game used a weird memory manager that only works in MS-DOS, and in very specific MS-DOS configurations, at that.)

Continue reading ‘Finished Path of Radiance; now playing…’

Now playing: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, Beyond Good and Evil

Published

Dehumanizer

3 years ago

in 2000s games, GameCube games, Now playing, PC games, PS2 games and Xbox games

. 2 Comments

I haven’t had much time to play games, in the last few days. This weekend, I was ill (though, in the immortal words of Monty Python, “I got better”), and there has been a lot of other stuff to do. Still, I had a little time to “maintain my sanity”, and I’ve been playing two games, mostly.

The first of them is Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, on the GameCube, which I’ve already mentioned a couple of times here. It keeps getting better and better - good story, interesting characters, more decisions to make, and, best of all, the need for different strategies in every level - not simply “advance and kill everyone in your path”. It’s really a joy to play.

The second one is a bit older: Beyond Good and Evil, also on the Cube (this isn’t an exclusive, though, it’s also available for PC, PS2 and Xbox). I’ve had this game for about a year, but for some reason had never got around to play it… until now. And it’s brilliant.

IGN’s review, quoted on the back of the box, describes it as “Zelda for grown-ups”. While I don’t think that it’s a perfect description - among other reasons, because the Zelda games aren’t really for kids - it’s certainly a quick way to explain to people what the game looks and plays like. It’s an action/adventure game, with a great story (involving control of the media by the government - guess that’s where the “for grown-ups” bit comes from), and absolutely endearing characters. For instance, one of your “party members” is Pey’j, a pig-like humanoid - whose personality, voice acting and mannerisms make him more “human” and lovable than more than 95% of video game characters. Jade herself, the character you control, is one of the few female characters that is feminine without looking as if she’s just there for making male teens drool.

BG&E has been called “the best game nobody played”, as, while every review out there described it as brilliant, it almost didn’t sell. But you can probably still buy it, and cheaply, too. If you like the 3D Zeldas (Ocarina, Majora, Wind Waker), go buy it immediately; if not, or if you don’t know them, at least take a look at it; rent it, or something. It’s a work of art - so much that Peter Jackson recently contacted the main author, Michael Ancel, to create the game version of his next movie, King Kong.

Second impressions: Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

Published

Dehumanizer

3 years ago

in 2000s games, GameCube games and Now playing

. 0 Comments

This was the game I played the most, this weekend. Since I already wrote some incredibly short “first impressions” a couple of days ago, these impressions are “second”.

Let’s see. The game is, as everyone probably knows, a turn-based tactical RPG, where your characters fight several kinds of missions against several kinds of enemies, becoming more powerful, and can be customized (up to a point) however you want. There’s also a story, and the characters have some personality, which is good.

The music is great; however, the graphics are not. They aren’t “bad” in any way, but the Cube is capable of much, much more. Still, the graphics aren’t really the point.

Although the game itself seems fairly linear, there are many ways to influence what happens. For instance, if a character dies, he or she really dies - no Phoenix Downs or anything like that. Although you can, of course, reset the console and try again, later battles are long and hard, so you will probably have to make some sacrifices by then. Besides, it’s fun to see variations of the story without playing a “perfect” game where everyone survives.

Many characters are optional, and not that easy to recruit. For instance, in one of the first missions, where you’re attacking a pirate ship, a girl riding a pegasus is already there fighting them, and after the first turn you can easily see that she won’t last long. But… if you can quickly move through the rest of the pirates, reach her and talk to her, she’ll leave that battle, and come back a few missions later to join you. If you don’t get there in time, you can still complete the mission, but that girl is lost to you for good. Choices like this are common in the game.

Mission objectives are varied: they include killing every enemy, killing a particular boss, reaching a particular place on the map, or, some of my favorites, defending a position for X turns. In those, the enemies never stop coming, you simply have to endure, move wounded fighters to the back and replace them with other characters (assuming you have them, of course), heal the wounded, protect your mages and healers, and so on. Sometimes you can even use a couple of characters to run towards a boss and kill him - it’s risky, it won’t win you the mission, and you’ll have to run back to your battle lines, but bosses tend to have some good weapons…

So far, a very good game.