Time dilation

At the moment, I'm playing through two of the best action games of the last decade.

The first one is the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Trilogy. And what can I say: It's still a great franchise. It doesn't surprise me that even supercritic Yahtzee of Zero Punctuation fame thinks it's one of the best games of all the time.

Well, I'm just through part 1 and started part 2. Back in the days many critized it for leaving the magical oriental setting for a more dark, heavy metal themed worl (including scantily clad women). Still, with the upgraded combat mechanics I for one find it's the overall better game.

But what actually made me write a post on it was the small ad on PoP:WW (excuse the quality, just had my phone handy to take the picture).

It reads "The most cult swordfights on DVD! Kill Bill". Not only is it peculiar because it's actually part of the print of WW's front cover, but because it made me think about a time related phenonemon, which kind of fits in with PoP's theme: the perception of time.

For me at least, the computer game timeline is somehow outside of the normal timeline, and it's actually moving "quicker" for me. WW came out in late 2004, while the theatrical releases of Kill Bill were autumn 2003 and spring 2004. Still, if you'd askes me before noticing that sticker, I'd have adamantly thought that Kill Bill was newer that WW, or even the whole Trilogy, which ended in 2005 with The Two Thrones (which I admittedly never finished, as I never defeated the final boss back when it came out... well, that's to come in the next few weeks).

So it seems to me that the video game time is passing faster. 2004 in Videogames just seems so much longer past than 2004 in the real world. But that might be due to the quick developement of new technologies and the fast pace of the medium.

The other game series I play kind of ties in with the last entry: the greek mythology action epic God of War. I have the first two parts lying around for quite some time as I liberated them from my brother some time ago, but despite the praise it gets everywhere, I never could bring myself to play it, even after finishing the quite blatant rip-off Conan on a friend's PS3.

Well, I'm about halfway into the first part, and as I lack both a HD telly and a PS3, I can't really finish the trilogy at the moment, but the God of War 3 release still came to me as the perfect reason to pop those old DVDs into my PS2. Funnily enough it looks quite similar two WW, which came out shortly before the first GoW, with only the focus more on combat than PoP's acrobatics.

Old times

Wow, it almost took me two months to make my first 2010 post. Well, that's because I have less and less time to game, let alone write about it.

The main gaming time is spent with an awesome group: the 6th Sense Coop Community.

They're very similar to dslyecxi's shacktac as in they do "milspec" coop ArmA 2 missions of varying scale. I prefer 6th Sense though because of two reasons: They're european, so games start at 8 pm MET rather than 00:00, and the ping's better. Also, they're a tad less strict with their rules and need a tad less dedication, which suits me better. Still, shacktac's a great group too, so if you're interested in great coop ArmA 2 gaming, get in contact.

Other than that, I recnetly found Rise of the Argonauts in the budget bin of a store and I bought it for a whopping 6,99 €.

Now I was interested in that game not only because Ed Del Castillo's fame from classic C&C (free to download nowadays), but because I really like the ancient greek setting.

But as it wasn't that well recieved critically back when it came out, I missed out on it. Which was a shame really, because despite it's flaws, it's a great game. Surprisingly, it pretty much feels like a shorter version of Mass Effect, despite the quite opposite setting. It's quite dialogue heavy and the action is adequate, so of you see it and like games that feel like they're made by Bioware (despite not quite that classy), give it a go if you find it cheap.

It'sa meeeee!

Wow, days just seem to blitz past, it's december already.

To get my girlfriend to play more, and more importantly, to9 play something other than Mario Kart Wii, I got her the New Super Mario Bros. Wii (which is a stupid name in my humble opinion).

The only thing I can say about it is that it's pure awesomeness, especially in multiplayer. While you have to keep together, the way you block and bounce the other player makes it a very frantic experience. Causing the untimely loss of a 1up of your fellow player will happen, even if you don't actually try do do so.And the more players are playing, the more stressing it gets, as you need to watch your mates more than the enemies or levels.

Other than that, it's standard Mario fare with a few new power ups, which in itself isn't bad either. If you own a Wii and even only remotely like plattformers, just get that game.

In other news, I'm slowly progressing through Dragon Age: Origins. Many review sites already told you how awseome it is, and I agree, allthough I kind of get tired of Biowares formula of very lengthy dialogues and swamping you with sidequests that don't progress the story. Of course I know that they are optional, but still, I'd really like to see a game where sidequests help you finish the main story by other means than simply buffing out your character. Bioware should really try to move on rather than simply repeat the old KotOR formula. Not that this formula is bad, it just is getting to grow old on me.

Also, I "liberated" the copy of Fallout 3 from my brother and I am playing it. While I didn't like it initially when it came out, as I was and still am a militant fan of the two original games by interplay, and I hated Oblivion with passion, I kind of enjoy it now. Don't know why, really. Perhaps it isn't a bad game after all, even though I still think it would've worked better if they didn't abuse the fallout name for it.

Tough shell

It seems I had, or even still have, an affinity towards wearing armor. At least that's what I guess after discovering another of my alltime favourite games: Looking Glass' Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri (1996)

Sadly, it wasn't a success back then, even though it was critically approved, had great gameplay and for that time stunning 3D graphics that boasted a never before seen viewing distance. Every hill on screen could actually be reached in game.

It also had many features that are now standard in tactical games, like open maps that allow multiple tactical approaches and freeaim.

The setting has also quite a twist to it: you're Nikola Ap Io, Squadleader of the newly formed Strike Force Centauri, and it's your job to defend the colonies of the Centauri System against pirates and against the dystopian Earth Hegemony.

The story is beautiflly detailed and told in personal e-mails, news and videos with real actors. It also features a vast library of in-game lore. In fact, there is more background story than in most modern triple A RPG titles.

I find it actually quite sad that nowadays game universes are all pretty limited to the actual game's story. Even last time's Crusader came with extensive background literature. Not only do these things make a good reading while you can't actually play, for example because you use the lavatories, but they add to the immersion into the game world.

In other news: It's my birthday today, so if you have loads of spare cash, you might gift me some games on Steam, as I'm quite low on cash to get them for myself at the moment... Here's my Steam Community Page. Just add me to your friendslist anyway.

My whishlist:

Dragon Age: Origins

Borderlands

Left 4 Dead 2

Torchlight

Killing Floor

And there's still the weekend sale for Mass Effect

Retro Bliss!

Recently, I found my old copies of one of my alltime favourite game franchise: Crusader: No Remorse and Crusader: No Regret by Origin.

Released back in 95/96 both are DOS games which are a bit of a hassle to run properly on Windows XP or Vista (and I guess on Win7 too), but thanks to DosBox, at least No Remorse runs flawlessly. I haven't tried No Regret yet, as I want to finish the first part first.

As for the game: It's as awesome as it was back in it's days: It's a top down "run&gun" type game where you are a Ex Silencer turncoat aiding the resistance aigainst the World Economic Consortium, a quasi fascist one world governement. The gameplay is deeper though than just running and gunning, you have to advance tactically to succeed, let alone survive on the higher difficulties, and you have numerous gadgets and weapons to help you with your goals. My all time favourite would be the spider-bomb which you guide to your target via remote from a safe position.

But there are other things that made it stand out back then: the crisp graphics, smooth animations and the superb industrial/techno soundtrack. And it being 2D, it's graphics aged very well. It might not impress you like it did back in 95, but at least you don't want to rip your eyes out while looking at it.

Also, the storytelling is superb, despite it's 90ies Sci-Fi cheesyness.

So conclusively, it's a game that I can recommend to anyone, either to dive in the warm fuzzy feeling of nostalgia, or to witness the zenith of 2D gaming.

In other nostalgic news: Remedy of Max Payne fame released a Windows compatible version of their debut title from 1996: Death Rally. Check it out, it's a great game.

Again, long time no see

Hi folks! Sorry for the lengthy pause since the last update, but there were several real life things keeping me busy, as well as me spending time gaming rather than writing about it.

But today, I got some minutes off, so I just keep you informed on what I'm up nowadays.

On the Wii, I'm pretty hooked with the Metroid Prime Trilogy. I never got around to play the first two on the Gamecube, and as part three never got cheaper so I never bought it. It was a gift from the heavens of Nintendo to get a bundle with all of them, plus it was actially 5 Euros cheaper than MP 3 standalone.

Not really much to say about the game though, as I am only one third through with part 1. I can only say I like it. A lot. It's one of those rare games that makes me scribble down notes on rooms so I don't lose track of hidden things I found which are not yet accessible due to not having the proper equipment yet.

I do imagine it quite tedious to regain all of the equipment in each part, so I propably will take a lengthy break between finishing every part.

I haven't touched up on multiplayer, mainly for two reasons: living in a two person household, I lack adversaries, and my girlfriend just doesn't touch anything except Mario Kart Wii. Well, at least gaming wise... cough...

Wich brings me to the deepest gripe I have with MPT: no online multiplayer. Boooo!

On the PC, there are two things keeping me occupied. Firstly, I ran across a 10 Euro Splinter Cell collection, which I couldn't resist buying. Back in the days I only played part one, and have lost the disks since then, so it was a neat opportunity to brush up on Splinter Cell before the fith installment arrives. Right now, I'm about two thirds into part one, so plenty of sneaking to do until I finish it. Review-wise I don't think I have to say much, except that I don't know why I haven't played the Splinter Cell sequels when they were released.

The second game occupying my precious free time was Risen. It's made my the german developer Piranha Bytes. If you know them, Risen won't surprise you as they basically made the same geame thrice already: Gothic, Gothic 2 and Gothic 3.

If you don't know the series: They're RPGs without character creation. You start as a nameless generic char and decide if he will become a mage, a fighter, thief, hunter, alchemist, smith, whatever while playing. In all three games, the story telling is rather a weak point. But the huge believable worlds suck in anyone with a tiny bit of a need to explore. You have to beware though, as none of these games take you by the hand and guide you through it. You're pretty much on your own. And, at least at the beginning, even the lowliest standard monsters are a serious threat. So you better beef up before venturing too far from settlements. Which makes the games quite hard, especially during the first few levels, but ultimately, I like that approach more than level scaling like in Oblivion.

Little surprise that the only superficial difference between Risen and Gothic is that the again nameless hero has no goatee.

Beneath the surface there are some differences though. The one that gets most obvious is the scale. While Gothic 2 and especially 3 offered huge freely accessible landscapes, Risen only features a small island, not much larger than the prison in Gothic one. Also, while you could sink hundreds of hours into gothic 2 and 3 before finally beating it, Risen only takes twenty hours to finish.

While that sounds short, unless you compare it to FPS games, the small scale was the main reason Risen isn't such a bugfest as Gothic 3. Also, you spend less time wandering through vast, yet beautiful, landscapes just to get on with the quests. These two things make for a better paced gameplay and actually don't harm the overall game.

So I can definately recommend it to anyone who's into rather hardcore RPGs.

The next stage

Just a short update, as I haven't been following much recently.

After a discovery of a new track by a community member at a BTCC race, Scawen Roberts announced it officially: Rockingham will be the first real track in LfS. And it will be the first S3 content to be relased, along with another new car, which is yet to be disclosed.

I guess it's still at least a year off though, judging by the Scirocco, which should've come out back before Christmas 08.