Sunday, 30 September 2012

Retro Diary - 30/09/12

Tuesday 25th September 2012

I got Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD and Jet Set Radio on Steam today.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD is great in my opinion, very underrated. Jet Set Radio is okay too, but it's the exact same as the original game, but with a higher resolution, which makes it look sharper and clearer, sure, but it's nothing major, I suppose though it's for the better, the original still had some value.

Friday 28th September 2012

I ordered FIFA 13 on PC months ago on PC from Amazon, and it said it would arrive on the day it came out, but guess what, it didn't, I'm fuming...

Saturday 29th September 2012

FIFA 13 on both PC and PS2 as well as F1 2012 on PC have arrive today, it's about time, but at least I have it now, and a weekend to play it!

I was met with a pleasant surprise with the PS2 boxing, Apart from RC Revenge, do you know of any PS2 games with a picture/logo on the spline instead of plain text? Well, at the end of the PS2's life, it finally got one with FIFA 13's case, look!


My brother copy of FIFA 13 on PS3 has arrived as well, we've agreed to make this week PS3 week to play FIFA 13, then it's PS2 week, where we'll play the PS2 version. which sounds fair enough.


Well, I don't have time to write much more, I have some FIFA 13 (and F1 2012) to play!

Sunday 30th September 2012

It was PS3 week this week, or so it was supposed to be, we didn't actually play it, we just talked for a short while then left, that's it...

Let's hope next week will be better, which is PS2 week, so we can play FIFA 13 on PS2 as I said before.

Saturday, 29 September 2012

"Retro" Arrivals: FIFA 13 [PC & PS2] & F1 2012 [PC]

I know I said I'd stop doing articles dedicated to stuff that arrived in the mail, but I had to make an exception!

FIFA 13 didn't arrive on Friday, but both of the PC and PS2 version arrived today! and I was met with a pleasant surprise with the PS2 boxing, Apart from RC Revenge, do you know of any PS2 games with a picture/logo on the spline instead of plain text? Well, at the end of the PS2's life, it finally got one with FIFA 13's case, look!


This was just a quick update to say they've arrived, and look great! F1 2012 arrived as well, which is awesome!



Well, I don't have time to write much more, I have some FIFA 13 to play!

-Cobra!

Sunday, 23 September 2012

Retro Diary - 23/9/12 - "HA! Beat THAT!"

Monday 17th September 2012

I've completed Sleeping Dogs today! It was an epic game! I really hope they make a sequel!

I got a 6-pack of AA Batteries because my TV remote needed new batteries as it wasn't working, or so I thought, they don't work, so that means the remote is broken, so I can't play any console games until either the TV gets fixed, or I get a new one. The batteries I got came with a free download of the London 2012 game for the PC, well, a demo of the game, but you can only get it through getting the batteries, so I did that, gave it a shot, and I have to say, I wasn't entirely impressed, the game seemed average.

Wednesday 19th September 2012

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD is now on PC!!!
Sure, it's only a download game, sure, it's a remix of an old game, and sure, the reviews aren't brilliant, but it's the first time in years a new Tony Hawk game has come on a platform that I have!
It's been years since I've had that feeling of getting that new Tony Hawk game near Christmas time! Just to get that feeling again, I might just get it!

Friday 21st September 2012

Before I write anything, Happy 5th Birthday Gamerstorm!

I've been trying out this thing called "Game Gain", which is supposed to improve performance for your games, I've tried this before, on Stranglehold, but didn't see any difference, but that was a bad game to test it on, as it ran on 60+fps normally. Since I have a lot more games that can't run 60fps on high settings, I thought I'd try it out again, and I actually noticed a slight increase in performance, nothing major, but it's impressive how they improved performance at all with the same specs as before.

My Copy of Space Station Silicon Valley for N64 has arrived, too bad I don't have a working TV to use to play it, I ordered the game before I found that my TV is broken...

I've tried out the F1 2012 demo, because I found that along with FIFA and PES 2013, people were buying F1 2012, so I thought if there's a demo, I'd try it out, I really enjoy Codemasters' racing games, not just because you can select Scotland as your country, they're genuinely fun games, and also I like F1, not the sport itself, as it more for the money, at least these days, but I have a lot of F1 games so I thought combing the two, it should be good.
Initially, at the country selection for your profile, it was at "United Kingdom", I thought, "That sucks!", but then I found you can still select the countries in the UK, so that's good, but why anyone from the British Isles would choose the UK, which isn't a country, over their actual country, is beyond me.
I've only tried the tutorial stages of the game so far, and first impressions are good, like all Codemasters games I've played on PC, it's very well optimised, it can run 1080p on high settings on my PC easily, and the game itself is quite fun from what I've played.

As if by a miracle, my TV started working again! So I had a shot of Space Station Silicon Valley, and it's great fun, but after seeing the first cutscenes, I had to make this!:

Saturday 22nd September 2012

Pro Evolution Soccer for PC has arrived today!

I've just opened up the box, and the manual and disc look really cool!:


The manual is also in full colour! Which I haven't seen in years! It feels so good to not be reading in black and white:




I've played the game itself, and it's the same fun game as last year only... the same, it controls and plays the exact same! Oh well, Hopefully next year's game will be different/better with their new Fox Engine...

Sunday 23rd September 2012

It's PS2 week this week.

I played a couple of levels of Transformers until Giancarlo and/or Steven came in.

Then I played a couple of games with Giancarlo.

Then we played Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam.

Then we played a few fights of Mortal Kombat Armageddon.

Then we and Steven played a few games on Timesplitters 2, then me and Steven played two levels (Wild West & Atom Smasher) in Co-Op Mode.

Then we played 4, (yes, 4!) games of Horse in Shaun Palmer's Pro Snowboarder, The first two Steven had won, then we decided to change the handicaps around (usually I'm set to lowest and he's set to highest) and I won that time, so in the final match, we set both of our handicaps to +5, and it was good fun, we were both equally matched, I say that, I mean he still annihilated me... Although the horse name then was "YASSS", making me a YASSS, YASSS!
It's 17-8 to me, he's catching up, I see this as good, I love a balanced battle.

After that, we had to go.

Next week is Xbox week.
Article By: Cobra!
Help Provided by: Steven (CobrbDB)

Sunday, 16 September 2012

Retro Diary - 16/9/12 - "Great shot, CPU! Oh, CPU, you idiot!"

Monday 10th September 2012

I was a G-Force after college today (No surprises there.), and I bought 3 Sega Saturn games, Sega Worldwide Soccer 97 and 98, and Virtua Fighter (1).

I saw a model 1 Mega Drive with a Mega CD attachment, it had no price tag, so I asked at the counter how much it was, and she said if it works (they had yet to test it), they said it might be £60 for both, which sounds really good. I liked it up on ebay, and to buy model 1 Mega CDs on their own on eBay costs £240! I'm getting that Mega CD out of G-Force as soon as I can! I know the guys won't be interested in getting it before me, I trust you guys, but you're wanting it, I'm not overly fussed, the race will be on!

I came home to be greeted by 2 parcels! One that looked like one that a strategy guide book would go in, and the other was actually pretty big, but it had Japanese writing on it, so I knew exactly what that was!

The guide was the Sleeping Dogs strategy guide that I ordered alongside the game, I only do that to games I really want.

The game was Digimon Tamers Battle Spirit 1.5 for the Wonderswan Colour, the box was actually taller than a Black & White Wonderswan game, it was actually the size I initially expected them to be, the rest of the box was just paper and bubble wrap, it seems the Japanese aren't big fans of the environment.

I've played Battle Spirit, and it's brilliant, even better than I hoped! Visually, it looks amazing, just like a GBA game!

Tuesday 11th September 2012

It's worth mention first, R.I.P. to those who died in 9/11, it's been 12 long years.

Remember when I said I saw a Model 1 Mega Drive+CD there and said it might be £60 once they're ready to sell it? Well, I went back there today, and they had it for sale for £100, but it came with 2 6-button controllers and 3 games, technically 4! I was a bit sceptical at first, but they mentioned that they do a 3-month guarantee, which isn't too much, but with an old console, you'd be lucky to have a guarantee on it at all, it also means if it breaks within those 3 months, you can take it back and get a refund, which sounds alright. They also mentioned that chances are, it'll go in a couple of days, they rarely come by, hard and expensive to find on eBay, and it's on high demand.

Believe it or not, £100 is a good price for a Mega CD, To buy one on it's own, without the Mega Drive itself, any games, or controllers, would cost you a whopping £240! and that's not including delivery! £100 doesn't sound so bad now, does it?

So I decided to get it, if it doesn't work, I could just take it back, so I might as well give it a try.

As I bought it, they were explaining to me some things I would need to know about the Mega CD, like that it uses it's own power, that the reset button opens the tray and start closes it. I knew all of this, but it was awesome that this shop hires people who know what they're talking about. Unlike a certain other store...

The console works perfectly, although the display is a little off, but it turns out it was the Mega Drive itself with that problem, because I get the same display quality when playing a cartridge game, which of course doesn't require or involve the Mega CD.

The games I have for it at the moment aren't that great, except for one, I got Prince of Persia, Jaguar XJ220, Cobra Command (Which, sadly, sucks! ='(), and Sol-Feace, which is actually pretty fun.

Now that I own a Mega CD, that opens doors for me to try out those really bad FMV games, like Night-Trap! I can only get Sonic CD, with the proper music the EU/JP version had, as opposed to the US one Gems Collection had.

I downloaded and tried out the FIFA 13 demo for the PC, I downloaded it from Origin, because, where else? The game's just as fun as FIFA 12, maybe slightly better.

Wednesday 12th September 2012

I got Space Invaders for the PC today out of CEX, expecting it to be just like the PS1 version, only supporting bigger resolutions, sharper graphics and a much higher framerate, well, only 1 of the 4 are right...

Transformers for the PS2 arrived today, and it's just as good as it was when I first played it years ago!

Friday 14th September 2012


Black Mesa is finally out!


I've been looking forward to it for years, and I'm not disappointed, it's a great game!

Sunday 16th September 2012

It was a Mystery Console this week, I didn't reveal it until my cousins had finished their lunch and came in, it was the Sega Dreamcast, to make up for thee fact we didn't really play it last week.

Steven brought back my copy of Stranglehold that I let him steal, after he completed it.

Me and Steven started things off by playing Chu Chu Rocket!

Then we had a few games of Metropolis Street Racer, Steven and Giancarlo had a game as well. I changed my name from "CobrbDB", which I probably put it there for a joke, the misspelling came from Super Smash Bros. Brawl on the Wii, to "Cobra!". Steven changed his nickname from "Steven" to "CobrbDB", which is practically his new nickname, and we changed Giancarlo's name to "Ya555555555", which is mostly what he uses these days.

Then me and Giancarlo played Virtua Fighter 3TB.

Then me and Steven had a game of Virtua Tennis.

Then we played Virtua Tennis 2, Giancarlo joined in after us realising you can have 3 players, the game was just pure madness! I think we have found our new favourite multiplayer game, at least on the Dreamcast!

Then me and Steven had a game of Horse on Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, we played on the Skatestreet level, the "horse" was "RJIBYAHHBZ", Steven lost, with me having "RJIBY", 15-5 to me!

Then we played Le Mans 24 Hours.

Then we played Sonic Adventure 2, our- well, my favourite! We had a race on the Go-Karting, which he won out of us 2. We had a couple of shooting battles, We both won 1, then we had a 2 races, again, we both had a win.

Then we played Ready 2 Rumble, our reality that live and Australia, and they were watching us play this, he loves to watch boxing, we had 2 game, I think we both won 1 game each.

At this point, we were aiming to have played all of the game we had, we almost done it before, but this time we had much more time, we it was possible.

Then we had a game of WWF Attitude.

Then we had a race of Sega Rally. Which I lost!

Then we played Sega GT.

Then we played Mortal Kombat Gold.

Then we played Re-Volt, we had a race, which he won, somehow...

Then we played NBA Showtime, we had no choice to play as a team, and we lost by 10 or so points...

Then we had a game of WWF Royal Rumble.

That was us played all of the games, so we celebrated by playing some more Virtua Tennis 2! We played doubles, both of us on separate teams, but most points were by either the CPU being good, or them making a stupid mistake!

It turned out that we missed a few games, we played some UFC, the graphics were fantastic for a Dreamcast game, it looked stunning, but the gameplay kind of sucked.

Then we played another horse game on Tony Hawk's Skateboarding, this time, the "horse" was "GLQTEZWZY", for some reason, we could change it this time, last time, we had to stick with "horse".
Steven got GLQTEZWZY, but I ended up getting a G, was this the glimmer of hope Steven needed? Nope, He got a Y right afterwards, I win, 16-5!

Finally, we had a game of ECW Hardcore Revolution, which I won.

That was certainly an active week, next week is PS2 week, WWE All Stars time!

Article By: Cobra!
Help Provided by: Steven (CobrbDB)

Tuesday, 11 September 2012

Retro Pick-Ups: A Sega Mega CD!

Remember when I said I saw a Model 1 Mega Drive+CD there and said it might be £60 once they're ready to sell it? Well, I went back there today, and they had it for sale for £100, but it came with 2 6-button controllers and 3 games, technically 4! I was a bit sceptical at first, but they mentioned that they do a 3-month guarantee, which isn't too much, but with an old console, you'd be lucky to have a guarantee on it at all, it also means if it breaks within those 3 months, you can take it back and get a refund, which sounds alright. They also mentioned that chances are, it'll go in a couple of days, they rarely come by, hard and expensive to find on eBay, and it's on high demand.

Believe it or not, £100 is a good price for a Mega CD, To buy one on it's own, without the Mega Drive itself, any games, or controllers, would cost you a whopping £240! and that's not including delivery! £100 doesn't sound so bad now, does it?

So I decided to get it, if it doesn't work, I could just take it back, so I might as well give it a try.

As I bought it, they were explaining to me some things I would need to know about the Mega CD, like that it uses it's own power, that the reset button opens the tray and start closes it. I knew all of this, but it was awesome that this shop hires people who know what they're talking about. Unlike a certain other store...

The console works perfectly, although the display is a little off, but it turns out it was the Mega Drive itself with that problem, because I get the same display quality when playing a cartridge game, which of course doesn't require or involve the Mega CD.

The games I have for it at the moment aren't that great, except for one, I got Prince of Persia, Jaguar XJ220, Cobra Command (Which, sadly, sucks! ='(), and Sol-Feace, which is actually pretty fun.

Now that I own a Mega CD, that opens doors for me to try out those really bad FMV games, like Night-Trap! I can only get Sonic CD, with the proper music the EU/JP version had, as opposed to the US one Gems Collection had.

Monday, 10 September 2012

Retro Pick-ups: A whole bunch of stuff

I was a G-Force after college today (No surprises there.), and I bought 3 Sega Saturn games, Sega Worldwide Soccer 97 and 98, and Virtua Fighter (1).

I saw a model 1 Mega Drive with a Mega CD attachment, it had no price tag, so I asked at the counter how much it was, and she said if it works (they had yet to test it), they said it might be £60 for both, which sounds really good. I liked it up on ebay, and to buy model 1 Mega CDs on their own on eBay costs £240! I'm getting that Mega CD out of G-Force as soon as I can! I know the guys won't be interested in getting it before me, I trust you guys, but you're wanting it, I'm not overly fussed, the race will be on!

I came home to be greeted by 2 parcels! One that looked like one that a strategy guide book would go in, and the other was actually pretty big, but it had Japanese writing on it, so I knew exactly what that was!

The guide was the Sleeping Dogs strategy guide that I ordered alongside the game, I only do that to games I really want.

The game was Digimon Tamers Battle Spirit 1.5 for the Wonderswan Colour, the box was actually taller than a Black & White Wonderswan game, it was actually the size I initially expected them to be, the rest of the box was just paper and bubble wrap, it seems the Japanese aren't big fans of the environment.

I've played Battle Spirit, and it's brilliant, even better than I hoped! Visually, it looks amazing, just like a GBA game!

I've yet to try out the Sega Saturn games, so if you'll excuse me... I'm going to play Sleeping Dogs!

Sunday, 9 September 2012

Retro Diary - 9/9/2012 - Happy Birthday (NA) Dreamcast!

Monday 3rd September 2012

I've ordered a Wonderswan game off eBay late last night, after realising I had some money, it's called Digimon Tamers Battle Spirit v1.5, and it's for the Wonderswan Color. Just thought I'd tell you.

My first day back in college, and I bumped into one of my old high school friends on the train, he says he goes to the college I go to now, which is awesome. We were talking about a few things, mostly games, and My Little Pony, because he recently became a brownie, not that I have a problem with that, he can like whatever he wants.
He mentioned to me how it's weird that sometimes our opinion changes drastically about a certain thing, one time you might hate something, but later on, you might love it, and he was right, that's the case with me and games like Mirrors Edge and Grand Theft Auto IV, I hated them when they came out, but once I actually played them, I fell in love!

I came across another friend of mine, it's been years since we saw each-other, first thing he said to me was that he got a Dreamcast, good on him! I see he's still as into games as I am, that's good to know. We were talking about Dreamcast games for a good while, then we talked about the Max Payne games, funnily enough, the original game was planned for the Dreamcast, but that was cancelled.

I finally have a Wonderswan!
It has arrived today, and wow! it's tiny, it's smaller than I expected even after seeing one of it's games! Here's a size comparison between it, and a Game Boy Color:

Also, a size comparison between the console, and a box for one of it's games:


Of course, being that it came from Japan, the text/writing on the parcel was in Japanese, however, it was just a sheet of paper stuck on the cardboard, so I took it off, and there was another one, took that off, and there was another one, took that off, and they were all off, but then the last sheet of paper turned out to be two stuck together! Did they really need 4 sheets!? Since I have a thing for , I guess you could say, Exotic parcels/packages, I decided to hang them on my wall!

I've had a go on Klonoa: Moonlight Museum on it, everyone seems to think this game is mediocre and only for collectors, I partially agree with the latter, as it rarely pops up on eBay, and when it does, it goes for over £30, which is ridiculous for any Handheld game. However, once you get past the first world, which is dull and boring-ish, I'll admit, it really gets interesting in my opinion, you get new monsters and block that you'll recognise from the other Klonoa games, and makes the game a little more interesting and fun!

Tuesday 4th September 2012

Anyway, last week at that shop, I saw a copy of RC Revenge, boxed with manual for only £2 because the case was cracked, but I didn't get it because I ordered it from Amazon. That copy didn't arrive, and I got a refund for it, so I decided to visit the shop again if I get the chance, and get it if it's still there, it was!
I also found 007 The World is Not Enough for the PS1 there, it looks completely different from the N64 version, so I wanted to get it, because I love the 007 games, and wanted to get something new, well, new to me. It was £5, so I thought why not, at that price, it must be in pristine condition, the disc, I mean, they take out the discs when displaying them to avoid theft.

I also saw Viruta Tennis 2, I got the first game from there last week, loved it, so I thought why not get this one, it was also £5, the same as it is on Amazon, not too bad.

After that, I went to CEX, I found Resident Evil 4 for both Gamecube and PC, the PC version being £3 and the Gamecube version was £12, I also saw Theme Hospital for about £2.50, I was going to get them, but the line that particular day was massive, and I was killing enough time as it was, so I thought forget it, I would probably get them all cheaper on Amazon anyway, if not, I'll get them the next time I'm there, which I guess will be Thursday, when I go back to college, I'm off tomorrow!!!

When I got back home, I got 2 parcel today! I got Max Payne for PC and 007 Agent Under Fire for the Xbox!

I played a few matches of Goldeneye Source with my cousin, Steven, it was almost as fun as the original! There was funny moment we had, in a match where the weapons were set to explosives, I threw a bunch of remote mines in a certain spot, and Steven fell right into the trap, I detonated them just as he was running over them, I found that hilarious, truest me, it's funnier than I'm making it sound...

Friday 7th September 2012

Max Payne 2 Arrived Today, I haven't installed or even opened it yet, I'm waiting until I complete the first game.

Saturday 8th September 2012

Sleeping Dogs, Inversion and 007 Everything or Nothing Arrived today!

Sleeping Dogs is fantastic, I'm very addicted to it!

Inversion, however, isn't quite up to that level, it seems it's another shoddy PC port, you have no option to turn off Motion Blur or Depth of Field, why don't games give you the option any more!? No one likes these effects, sure, some don't mind, but there's a difference between that and actually liking them. All they do, is blur out the game and slow it down, they're not good for anything! I know no one's going to listen to me but, developers, get some common sense, and don't use these effects! This is one of only 3 PC games Namco have ever released, and they all have this problem! I love Namco, but they're not cut out for PC games!

I expected Everything or Nothing to be just like Nightfire on consoles, only improved further, but nope, they've ditched that engine, and gone third person, why? It never works, only Blood Stone years later got it right. It plays just like 007 From Russia With Love, which was okay in multiplayer, but was kind of rubbish in single-player, trust EA to screw franchises up, eh? Luckily Activision got their hands on the 007 licence and got things right again!

As you probably imagined, I was playing Sleeping Dogs all day.

Sunday 9th September 2012

It's the 9th of the 9th, the Dreamcast's birthday! Well, the North American Dreamcast anyhow... but it was the perfect excuse to bring along and play the Dreamcast!

Well, that was the plan, but my brother brought his PS3 as well, and we, or rather they, were mostly playing that.

When Steven came, he gave me back my copy of 007 Blood Stone for the PC... just thought I'd mention that.

Me and Giancarlo were playing Virtua Tennis and Virtua Tennis 2, and a game of Ready 2 Rumble Boxing, that's it.

Then for the rest of the time there, they were just playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band on the PS3.

That sums up today in a nut shell, next week, I'm not sure what we'll do.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be playing some Sleeping Dogs...

Tuesday, 4 September 2012

Retro Pick-ups: Virtua Tennis 2 [DC], RC Revenge [PS1] and 007 The World Is Not Enough [PS1]

On the way home from College, I popped into both G-Force and CEX.

When I was at G-Force, I saw a couple of Japanese tourists, or at least I think they're Japanese, I can tell they weren't Chinese, I doubt they'd be in game stores, so they were either Korean or Japanese, either way, it's the first time I've seen Asian tourists here in Scotland. I could tell they were tourists, because they were speaking a foreign language to each other.
Apparently, we get Japanese tourists in Scotland all the time, but it's first time I've seen any, why would they come here anyway, I could understand going to the Highlands, I imagine it's nice there, I want to go there myself, but why Glasgow?

Anyway, last week at that shop, I saw a copy of RC Revenge, boxed with manual for only £2 because the case was cracked, but I didn't get it because I ordered it from Amazon. That copy didn't arrive, and I got a refund for it, so I decided to visit the shop again if I get the chance, and get it if it's still there, it was!
I also found 007 The World is Not Enough for the PS1 there, it looks completely different from the N64 version, so I wanted to get it, because I love the 007 games, and wanted to get something new, well, new to me. It was £5, so I thought why not, at that price, it must be in pristine condition, the disc, I mean, they take out the discs when displaying them to avoid theft.

I also saw Viruta Tennis 2, I got the first game from there last week, loved it, so I thought why not get this one, it was also £5, the same as it is on Amazon, not too bad.

All the discs look in fine condition, I've already tried Virtua Tennis 2, and it works just fine. I've yet to try the others, though.


After that, I went to CEX, I found Resident Evil 4 for both Gamecube and PC, the PC version being £3 and the Gamecube version was £12, I also saw Theme Hospital for about £2.50, I was going to get them, but the line that particular day was massive, and I was killing enough time as it was, so I thought forget it, I would probably get them all cheaper on Amazon anyway, if not, I'll get them the next time I'm there, which I guess will be Thursday, when I go back to college, I'm off tomorrow!!!

When I got back home, I got 2 parcel today! I got Max Payne for PC and 007 Agent Under Fire for the Xbox!

Right, I'll be off, I have so many games to play, but so little time...

Sunday, 2 September 2012

Retry Diary - 2/9/12 - "CobrbDB! My arch nemises!"

Monday 27th August 2012

YES!!!! For years, I wanted this handheld system called the "Wonderswan", or more specifically, the "Swan Crystal", because that's the last in the line of Wonderswans, so I can play all wonderswan games, that and it has the clearest and best screen.

I ordered (Kaze no) Klonoa: Moonlight Museum for the Wonderswan a few days ago, I forgot exactly when, because I am a huge fan of Klonoa, and this game was rarely comes by, but I found an item on eBay, and got it, despite not having a Wonderswan, that is until now.
I saw a Swan Crystal in eBay yesterday, in that "Crystal Blue" colour I wanted, it was £50, so I made an offer yesterday of £40, and they accepted!

Like I said, I wanted a Swan Crystal for years, but never found one until now, I guess it's true when they say good things come to those who wait...

Wednesday 29th August 2012

Nothing of note really happened on Tuesday, so I'm skipping to Wednesday.

My and my brother played a few games (or "Duels" as the game calls it) of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, 4 games to be exact, and I lost all 4, 2 of the games my brother went on medium while I went on easy, he still beat me...

I tried out both the Driver and Dri3r demos on PC, Driver 1 ran great, even on high settings, although coming from a 13 year old game (Jeez! Is it that old!?), I didn't expect any less!

Before I get to the Driv3r PC demo, I have and played the PS2 version, and also played the Xbox version, the PS2 version had a choppy framerate it ran awful! The Xbox version ran more-a-less the same from recollection, maybe a bit better.

I was worried that perhaps this was one of those games that ran at this same framerate regardless of the hardware you're using or what your settings are, like Reservoir Dogs or 007 Quantum of Solace.

Luckily, it wasn't, and it ran beautifully on PC, bye bye Choppiness!

Friday 31st August 2012

I think I have become addicted to GTA IV, because I've noticed that that's all I've been playing, and according to Raptr, when I play it, every time it's for at least 2 hours straight! Who cares, though, it's a great game!

I am officially done with Nightfire for the PC, not because I've completed it, but because for some reason, at this one level (Elevator Action), it's become so buggy and laggy, that's it's unplayable, seriously! I don't even know how they managed that, since it's all the same engine, it should stay the same for the whole game, but apparently not.

Before this level, it was functional, maybe boring at some parts, and the levels drag on, but it was fine.
However, once I reached this level, it was full of bugs!

For starters, it didn't auto-save once the level started, like the other levels, which was strange, but that's only the icing on the cake. Sometimes I couldn't move, the mouse lags, the aiming sometimes lags, and what I mean by that is that it constantly switched from zoomed in to normal, the camera does a similar thing, for one frame or so aims the opposite direction, some enemies at some times are you can't kill, even if they're in a wide open space, not behind anything, and you're pumping mountains of bullets into them.
Worst of all, and I know this for a fact that's it's unbeatable, there was a part I was stuck at for ages, I consulted the trusty Strategy Guide, and it said I was to use the grappling hook, but guess what... you have no grappling hook! I read back to see if I missed a part where I was to get it, but nope, it didn't mention it until that point...

That's f*cked up! Did EA even play test this level!? Probably not, because hiring play testers would've involved EA spending money...

There are even several patches to the game, but none of them bothered to fix this problem!

Like I said, the rest of the game is fine, so why suddenly now does it glitch out on me.

Saturday 1st September 2012

My Klonoa: Moonlight Museum game arrived today!

Since it was from America, it came in one of those US parcels, I thought it looked cool, since we obviously don't get them here in Scotland. So I took a photo, here it is:


One thing I have to say about the game, or rather the box itself is.... it's tiny! I expected the box to be a taller version of the Game Boy and Game Boy Colour boxes! Here's a size comparison:


See what I mean?

Unfortunately, I still haven't got my Wonderswan (otherwise I would've mentioned.), so I can't try it out...

Sunday 2nd September 2012

I decided to bring the N64 over the Dreamcast (I was struggling to choose between the two) to gran's this week.

I was going to show my cousins my Wonderswan, but it hadn't arrived, but as mentioned earlier, a game I ordered alongside it did, so I just brought that and showed them that.

I mentioned also about the US parcel, and me and Gaincarlo had a little interesting conversation about, you could say, Exotic parcels? Well, he mentioned he ordered a Zelda: Minish cap off of eBay, and the seller was from Hong Kong, so his parcel was has a lot of Cantonese writing. I kind of hope my Wonderswan will come in a parcel that's got Japanese writing on it, being that it's from Japan, it probably will.

I played a mission on Mission Impossible.

Then me and Steven played WWF Attitude, had a few games, funny to play as always.

Then we played Goldenwhy! (Goldeneye), we had 2 games of that, I won 1, and he won the other.

Then Giancarlo joined in to play Perfect Dark with us, we had a few games of this, I was played a guard with Shigeru Miyamoto's head! Steven took the alias as "CobrbDB" referencing a typo I once made in a game, although I forgot which, maybe Steven could tell me... Throughout the time we were playing, he got the most kills, so I declared CobrbDB as my nemesis!

Then me and Steven played Riiiiiidge Racer 64, then after a few races, Giancarlo joined in.

Then me and Steven played Tony Hawk's Skateboarding for the N64, we had a game of horse! Instead of horse, though, it was "EQUSFEZAA"! I won the match, but he did manage to get a letter or two out of me, and he said that was enough for him! Fair enough, it also made the game look less one sided. Even at that, it's 14-5 to me now, the whole thing looks one-sided, and I'll be honest, I don't like that, I hope Steven steps up his game and gets himself a few wins, maybe we'll play the games he's good at...

Then finally, we played the Pokémon Stadium mini games, it was first to 5 wins, and he won...


That's it for this week, next week we're back on schedule, it's PS2 week!

Article By: Cobra!
Help Provided by: Steven (CobrbDB)