Archive for the ‘PC games’ Category

Jets ‘n’ Guns: Gold Edition

Wednesday, December 13th, 2006

Well, as my first post, I’d like to point out something I just found out about.

Rake in Grass has just launched an expansion pack for their great game, Jets’n'Guns!!

More of a “ok, the game’s as it should’ve been now” than a “hey, new stuff!” package, the so-called Gold Edition brings new features (well, duh ^_^’) like:

  1. the game now supports 800×600 resolution, which means more baddies on the screen, more items onscreen in the shop, etc.;
  2. More weapons, more foes, more ships, twice as long story mode and more music from the norse gods Machinae Supremacy (among others)!

If you like side-scrolling, R-type-like shooters with very nice graphics, excellent gameplay and are known to have the occasional bit of spare time on your hands, make your way to the game’s website and indulge yourself on an early holiday gift.

Consider this though: if you already own the “not gold” version of Jets’n'Guns, the Gold Version will cost you $9,95. If you do not (and shame on you if you don’t!), then it’s $29,95.

(Should you find yourself thinking “Weren’t the ads supposed to be on the right?”, I apologize: it’s my fault. I just saw this and made it my immediate priority to share it with the world in the appropriate medium, this blog.

My next posts will be much better, believe me :) )

[it was already quite good, but... you forgot the link. :) Here it is: Jets'n'Guns. - Dehumanizer]

PC games for 2006

Tuesday, March 28th, 2006

I found a thread on GameSpot with incredible screens from PC games announced for 2006. Go there and drool…

Medieval: Total War 2

Wednesday, March 22nd, 2006

Now this looks interesting… :)

Medieval: Total War 2

As you may remember, the first Medieval: Total War is one of the “Games of my Life”, and, IMO, one of the best strategy games of all time. A second version of it (it’s Creative Assembly’s first sequel ever) should be really amazing.

Here is the MTW2 official page, with lots of great screenshots. Unfortunately, they still insist on showing only battle images, and I’m even more interested in the campaign – which sounds amazing, from the description, but I’d like to see some of it. It’s probably not coded yet, I guess. :)

The bad news: it should be even more demanding than Rome: Total War, which my puny PC already can’t handle decently. I really must get around to getting rich. :)

Too little gaming… :(

Tuesday, February 14th, 2006

For the last few weeks, I haven’t had almost any time for gaming, unfortunately. That’s why there’s not much new stuff here, and on the Revolution blog. :(

This weekend, though, I finally had some time, and divided my time between 3 games:

So, 2 strategy games, and a shoot ‘em up. Not bad. :)

I really wish I had more time, though…

Now playing: Jets ‘n’ Guns

Monday, January 16th, 2006

Jets’n'Guns is a shoot’em up. One of the best I’ve ever seen – I’d rather not say “the best” outright, but I sure can’t think of a better one right now.

Jets'n'Guns

It’s a mix between R-Type and Tyrian, being closer to the latter. Technically, it’s certainly the best I’ve seen, with fantastic graphics, sound, music (by Machinae Supremacy), and never slowing down in the slightest. It’s also extremely varied, with lots of different scenarios, levels, enemies, mission objectives, weapons, ship upgrades, and so on.

If you like shoot’em ups, you owe it to yourself to at least download the shareware version, from the official site. Me, I bought it in a second ($20), and I have zero regrets.

Back to Puzzle Pirates

Tuesday, December 13th, 2005

Yup, I’m back. For some reason, from time to time I feel an overwhelming urge to play Puzzle Pirates again… weird, I know. I’m that guy in the center, though I’m now a little more well dressed than when that screenshot was taken. :)

Puzzle Pirates

Maybe it’s because it’s the only MMORPG where progress doesn’t depend mainly on time invested, but on skills.

Or the only one where almost everyone plays “in character”. Avast, ye landlubbers! Shiver me timbers! Yarrr! :D

What’s odd is that I don’t really like puzzle games (such as Tetris, Bejeweled, etc.) that much…

Finished Path of Radiance; now playing…

Sunday, December 11th, 2005

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.)

Ultima VII

(more…)

Sonic Heroes: first impressions

Monday, December 5th, 2005

I received it last Friday, for the GameCube, and played it yesterday for a couple of hours.

First, let me say that this is my first Sonic game since the original ones for the Megadrive (I have the 2 Sonic Adventures ordered, but one of them is back-ordered and so they haven’t arrived yet). This means that it’s also my first Sonic in 3D.

Sonic Heroes

From what I’ve played so far: the graphics are good. Not great, but good. Voice acting is… OK. The levels themselves look very, very nice, and the sense of speed is absolutely amazing. The camera, however, is quite poor – quite often you have to use your memory about what you’ve seen earlier, because you’re not seeing where you’re going – the camera takes too long to turn.

Even though the game is fully 3D, it plays (at least, so far – I’ve just got past the first boss) much like the old 2D games, in the sense that it’s quite linear – it’s always obvious where you have to go, and there’s not really any exploration, except to look for hidden areas and items. In other words, instead of free exploration like, say, Mario 64 or the 3D Zeldas, Sonic Heroes plays more like an “obstacle course”. A beautiful and varied one, though.

As you’ll know if you’ve read any (p)review or seen any ad for the game, you don’t just play one character, but a team of 3. There are 4 different teams, with slightly different storylines, goals, game styles and difficulty levels. Basically, however, each team has one “Speed” character, one “Power” character and one “Flight” character (for instance, in Team Sonic, they’re Sonic, Knuckles and Tails, respectively). In many parts of the game, you have to use a specific kind of character, though many challenges can be overcome with different characters, and sometimes you even get to choose paths, such as one which requires Power and one which requires Flight.

So far, I’m enjoying it, and thanks to its being a Player’s Choice game, it was quite cheap, too. :)

Some games I want

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2005

Since it’s almost Christmas… :)

In no particular order:

  • Sonic Adventure / Sonic Adventure 2: Battle / Sonic Heroes / Shadow the Hedgehog (GameCube): I haven’t played a Sonic game since the first 2D ones on the Megadrive, and I miss the blue guy. I think I’ll start with the first two, which are already Player’s Choice games, and can be bought cheaply.
  • Doom 3 (PC): I’ve only tried the demo, some months ago, and my PC is too slow to play it properly. But I’d like to play it in full when I get new hardware, a couple of months from now. I know a lot of people were disappointed with the game, as they were expecting a rocket-fest such as multi-player Quake, and Doom 3 is more of a horror game – but I’m curious about it.
  • X-Men Legends 2 (GameCube): loved the first one – the 4-player mode was great! I want more of it. :)
  • Mario Superstar Baseball (GameCube): one more for the post-lunch gaming sessions at home. :)
  • more tactical RPGs (several systems): after “discovering” Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, I want more. Most of them are for the GBA, it seems…
  • an RTS (PC): probably Age of Empires III, but, again, I need to upgrade my puny PC first…

Looking at that list, I realize an interesting fact: that after being a computer (8-bit, 16-bit, PC) gamer for most of my life, my tastes have slowly been turning to consoles more and more. I still play and enjoy PC games, but most of them are older ones – and, except for Civ 4 and the R:TW expansion, I haven’t bought any recently. I guess that would change if I had a more powerful PC, but… I don’t know. Not only do console games not have compatibility problems or hardware requirements that cost an arm and a leg to fulfill, but they’re… different. And they still feel “fresh” to me, while PC games increasing feel like what I’ve been playing all my life. Maybe I simply needed a change.

But it’s a fact that, for the past few months, I’ve been spending much more time on the GameCube than on the PC.

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

Monday, November 21st, 2005

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.

Beyond Good & Evil

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.


Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Portugal
This work by Dehumanizer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Portugal.