Gaming off the Beaten Path

  My goodness, are technical difficulties annoying. I had my 5th anniversary final almost completely done, ready and scripted. The key word there is had. Thanks to some unfortunate computer issues, it got deleted, so I am going to have to re-write my entire 10 round fight. It's a lot of work to do those and I don't want to rush to try to get it done, I want to give Suikoden II and Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne their due time in the spotlight. So, I am going to pivot and do that next week. Besides, it allows me to continue yet another Gaming Off the Beaten Path tradition: starting the year with an old sports game. I have already talked about Madden '04, it was actually the first 10s game I wrote about (I guess it was really about all the PS2 era Maddens, but '04 was the one I discussed the most). But again, that was the 6th generation version. Which I honestly thought was the only version. I didn't realize they were still making Madden games for the PS1 in 2004, so I ...

  Consider your wish...granted. In the past few weeks, we've talked a lot about series' first games and how their predecessors improved upon the foundations they laid. I decided it was fitting to continue that trend with our next 10's game, one of the truly great sequels of all time and a game that's truly special to me. I reviewed the original Twisted Metal a few months ago and I talked a lot about how transformational it was. I also talked about how flawed it was, which, as we've seen the past few weeks, was common. You have to experiment and try different things, how are you going to know what gamers like and don't like if you don't try different things? This was especially true of early generation games, which the original Twisted Metal was, where developers were still trying to figure out what the new hardware could do and what users wanted from it. But not everyone takes to heart the feedback they receive from critics and gamers. Some developers aren...

  Last week, we discussed the plot, characters, etc. of Front Mission 3 , a tactical RPG for the PS1. While there was definitely a lot to like and tons of potential, localization issues and confusing dialogue ultimately prevented FM3 from excelling in those departments. That would have buried a traditional JRPG, but I've always believed those elements were less important to tactical RPGs where gameplay and combat is usually the biggest selling point. Fortunately, FM3 is largely successful in those areas, though it certainly has its flaws. First and foremost, the combat is pretty solid. Anyone who's played Final Fantasy Tactics or any of its ilk will know exactly what to expect. Each battle arena is laid out on a grid, with your unit's stats and Action Points (AP) determining how far your characters can move and what actions they can take. Of course, none of these arenas are flat, so you will have to contend with varied heights and obstructions, which cost more AP to navigat...

  I've been looking forward to this one for a long time. I've skirted around it before, I talked about it extensively in my Warhawk review, I referenced it on my 10's list, but this is the first time I've ever done a full review of a Twisted Metal game. I touched on this in the Warhawk review, but I think you can safely classify Twisted Metal in the "off the beaten path" category. No new games since 2009, 12 years. The most recent release in the franchise came six years ago, with the re-release of Twisted Metal: Black on the Playstation network. It's kind of sad really. There was a time when Twisted Metal was a really, really big deal. Whenever one of these games came out, it was a big deal. Some were classic (I will eventually cover Twisted Metal 2 as part of my 10's) others were disappointing (TM3 is really, really bad) but there was always a lot of hype surrounding them. Then, it just wasn't. I have always chalked it up to the decline in popula...

 It's time once again to go back to this past. This time, our destination is 1995, the Los Angeles Convention Center for the Electronic Entertainment Expo, otherwise known as E3. We are smack in the middle of the bit wars, with Nintendo and Sega's 16-bit consoles, the Super NES and Sega Genesis, are starting to see their powers wane. It was time for the new era of gaming consoles to take shape, with exciting, 32-bit machines on the horizon. This event would see Nintendo showcase the Virtual Boy, and we all know how that turned out. Sega would announce the surprise launch of the Saturn, its long awaited follow-up to the Genesis (or Mega Drive for you Europeans out there). But it was the new kid on the block that would grab the attention. It's hard envision a time when Sony was a new player in the gaming console market, but here they were ready to introduce their first console, the PlayStation. There's a whole story behind its development, I've already talked a littl...

  It's amazing how much I've learned from video games over the years. Thanks to Sony, I recently got some practice in prepping for doomsday. I always sort of scoffed at people that hoard important items during the end times, something that seems to have happened a lot in the last year or so. But when Sony announced earlier this year they would shutter the PlayStation Store on the PS3, I started panic buying. You see, the PS3 has tons of "PSOne Classics" for sale that aren't available on the PS4. You have the standard stuff, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, etc. But there are also a ton, and I mean a ton, of rare, expensive JRPGs that can be had for under $10. I love physical media as much as the next person, but at the end of the day experiencing the games is what's really important. Do I want a physical copy of Suikoden II? Yes. Can I afford it for $300? No. But there it is on the PlayStation Store, for the perfectly reasonable price of $9.99. Sony did renege on their...

So, this week we are going to go on a bit of a detour. I wasn’t planning on covering Mega Man 8 this week, but on Father’s Day I asked my son what he wanted to do and he was like “play video games with daddy!”  I wasn’t going to tell him no.  I even told him he could pick the game.  He went right to “Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem,” but when I informed him that that game was just slightly not appropriate for a 3-year old,  he happily picked Mega Man 8 as a second choice.  How fitting, starting his gaming career off with the same franchise I began mine with 25 years ago. By now just about everyone is familiar with Mega Man.  I have touched on some of its more unique games and some parts of the X series, but this is the first time we will jump into the original series.  Released in January of 1997, 8 is the only mainline series title for the Playstation 1 (it also came out on the Sega Saturn).  It would also be the last one we would see for a ...

Kagero: Deception 2 For the first time, I’m not entirely sure how I would classify the game I’m about to review.  It’s not uncommon to find titles that mix genres, even back to the early days of gaming.  It’s a great way to keep stale formulas fresh and try new things.  But I’m not entirely sure what genre Kagero fits into, or if it even fits into one at all.  It’s part third person adventure, part strategy, part survival horror, part RPG and, dare I say, a little bit of a puzzle game.  A lot of games like this tend to become disjointed and incoherent, but that didn’t happen here.  Kagero is an outstanding game, but it comes with a major caveat. I am just going to get it out of the way, Kagero is a very violent and at times, very disturbing game.  It really, really earned its M rating.  As a PS1 game, the blood and gore aren’t really all that shocking.  In fact, the blocky character models and lacking details make the game much easier to st...

Here’s a fun fact: Ehrgeiz means “ambition” in German. Sorry, I didn’t know what else to start with.  I have been thinking about covering this very, very strange game for a while now and looping it in with Final Fantasy VII seemed like the best idea.  Your first question was probably “what does a random 3D fighting game from the 90s have to do with Final Fantasy VII?” (Actually, your first question was probably, “how the hell do I pronounce the title? But whatever.) It’s simple.  Most of the cast of FFVII are playable characters in this game.  Before I get really going, the more hardcore FFVII fans out there are probably all like “why didn’t you just review Crisis Core?”  Well, it’s been a while since I played it and while I do have access to a copy of the game, I don’t have a functional PSP to play it on.  Crisis Core is awesome, and I’m not sure I could get too in depth with my thoughts on it since its been so long.  So, b...