Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category
Podcast: U R Not [RED] e
This week Fred and Jam are joined by Andy from 42 Level One to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Sony Playstation. This CD based console is responsible for so much ushering into the next iteration of game development, hardware, media, and game libraries. It touched each host in his own way and deserves to be celebrated on its second decade of existence.
Resident Evil HD Remaster First Look
Sorry this is going up on Sunday night. Normally Retro Game Night is recorded on Friday and goes up Saturday morning, but we had to delay recording a day and these HD videos take a lot longer to render and post to YouTube. Either way, the video speaks for itself, but Fred got a retail copy of Resident Evil HD Remaster on PS3 that will be coming to the US in “early” 2015 (according to Capcom). Well since there was another option, we grabbed it early. Enjoy!
Upcoming Retro game Challenge: Conker’s Bad Fur Day
Greetings All:
As you’ve probably heard by now we are going to be playing through the entire campaign of Conker’s Bad Fur Day, live streamed on Twitch. Later on I’ll edit it together into a fun little highlight video that’s only about an hour long, but the entire 10-12 hour campaign will be streamed with sarcastic commentary. Here’s the schedule:
- 11pm – 3am Sunday, November 23rd
- 9am – 5pm Monday, November 24th
And if Fred doesn’t see the credits by then we will come back Monday night sometime (he has another podcast tomorrow night) and wrap it up. Stay tuned here for all the info. You can check out our twitch channel at twitch.tv/gh101.
Please Note: Due to the nature of the content in Conker’s Bad Fur Day and the language potentially used in commentary, you will be required to accept a mature content gate to access the stream. This is purely to prevent visitors from unwanted vulgarity. Thank you.
Retro Game Night: Contra 3, Contra Hard Corps, and Contra Rebirth
This week Fred goes 16-bit and beyond with his Contra. Having spent literally decades conquering the first two, it appears he doesn’t fair so well into the next generation.
Review: Alan Wake (and American Nightmare)
Platform: Xbox 360, PC (Windows only)
Released: 2010 (360), 2012 (PC)
Developer: Remedy Entertainment
Publisher: Microsoft
Digital Release? Yes, this game is available on all released platforms digitally
Price: $8.55 (disc only), $10.00 (complete) per Price Charting
The wind howled violently outside, coupling with the darkness to generate an atmosphere of dread. Had it been raining the scene would be complete. On the other side of the window, a reviewer sat down and began to play a new video game in the dark. While the gentle glow of the television provided just enough light to see around him, it was as if he were transferred to the fictional location of Bright Falls along with the game’s protagonist Alan Wake. What unfolded over the next dozen or so hours was impressive. This game was not unlike others he had experienced in terms of what to do or how it looked and felt, however thanks to thoughtful plot progression and deep character development the reviewer was able to let other faults go. He was repeating the same steps over and over again, the algorithmic nature of the confrontations were drowned out by the need to proceed forward and see where the story went. He wasn’t even sure what was going on anymore because, in truth, the plot was convoluted. It didn’t matter, the experience was begging him to move forward. He hoped it would not end. This was Alan Wake.
Retro Game Night: Night Slashers X
This week, and for the first time ever, we are using emulation to capture a Beats of Rage engine remake, Night Slashers X. This was originally a 1994 Data East arcade beat-em-up that got ported over with extra violence on the open source brawler engine, Beats of Rage. This also marks the first video in full 1080p HD! Watch for more HD videos, most of which should be in 720p or 1080p in the future.
Review: Bayonetta
Platform: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii U
Released: 2010 (360/PS3), 2014 (Wii U)
Developer: Plantinum Games (360), Nex Entertainment (PS3 port), Bee Tribe (Wii U port)
Publisher: Sega (360/PS3), Nintendo (Wii U)
Digital Release? Yes, this game is available on all released platforms digitally
Price: $7.59 (disc only), $11.24 (complete), $14.99 (sealed) per Price Charting
Bayonetta is an anomaly. It succeeds where many before it have failed. Merging a Japanese style video game in every sense of the word, whimsical plot, a female sexually independent dominatrix lead, and incredible gameplay that attracts both Eastern and Western fans alike. It is a true testament to the fact that if you bring a bunch of ideas together, no matter how outlandish, and they all remain consistent with an overall theme then more can definitely be better. The first major release from Platinum Games knocks it out of the park, provided you don’t play the PS3 version.
Bayonetta opens in the fictional town of Vigrid where an endless battle is being fought between light and dark wages on. Representing the light are the Lumen Sages and representing the dark are the Umbra Witches, and right off the bat this game turns the tables on you by revealing that your lead character, Bayonetta, is an Umbra Witch. Not that the light is portrayed in a particularly positive way – all of these “angelic” creatures don halos as well as aggressive weapons, massive sizes, horrific appearances, and an affinity for causing death. As Bayonetta you will trek across areas that vary from natural modern cities to metaphysical interpretations of heaven, purgatory, and hell, all with help from the game’s handful of unique characters that add some spark to Bayonetta’s lone wolf demeanor. That’s not to say you’ll be swapping who you play as or that there’s a multiplayer component – because you won’t and there isn’t – nope, all of these cast members merely break up the monotony of the typical “hero on a quest” formula. It’s all a good fit for an entertaining story, but that’s only the half of it because from both a plot and gameplay perspective Bayonetta herself has plenty of depth.
Podcast: Ah Ah Ahhhhh
This week Fred and Jam are discussing the misadventures of Master Chief, at least in terms of the Bungie developed ones. What started out as a Real Time Strategy (RTS) title for the Mac ended up ironically being the launch title for the Microsoft Xbox that has withstood the test of time and is to this day one of the strongest properties in gaming.
Podcast: Ripto – Trilogy of the Dragon
In a widely requested topic, this week Jam and Fred discuss the Spyro the Dragon trilogy on PS1. After briefly telling the story of the origins of developer Insomniac, the guys delve deep into the young dragon that played one of the only open world 3D competitors to Nintendo’s Super Mario 64.
Review: Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh
Also Known As: Phantasmagoria 2, Phantasmagoria II: Fatal Obsessions (European title)
Platform: DOS/Windows PC
Released: 1996
Developer: Sierra
Publisher: Activision
Digital Release? Yes, on Good Old Games (gog.com) for $5.99 (compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 7, and 8 only)
Price: $4.44 (5 discs only), $32.99 (complete), $69.00 (sealed) per Price Charting
Phantasmagoria, besides being a franchise with one of the most awesome names ever, is a psychological horror full motion video (FMV) game – a genre that was a hugely common in the 90’s thanks to the use of CD-ROMs as media. A Puzzle of Flesh is the sequel to the controversial original. Why was it controversial? Well, the original featured a crazy amount of graphic content including horrific death scenes for characters and adult scenes which caused quite the stir back in the day when it was released. This included sexual content and a rape scene, which is possibly not as controversial as the media makes it out to be. The sequel follows this trend, but on its own controversial level entirely. Being released just a year after the first game it was surprising to see this game did not receive the same attention as the original.
You play Curtis Craig, a man who loves his pet rat ‘blob,’ his girlfriend Jocilyn, and his taste in grey pocket t-shirts because he never seems to change his grey pocket T throughout the entire game. He’s living the American dream. Curtis has also been out of a mental hospital for a year and creepy things start to go down at his home and work at the suspicious WynTech Industries Corporation. Curtis very quickly starts to question his sanity, so it’s up to him to find out what’s going on or face another trip to the loony bin. It’s certainly a story I’ve not seen in a game before and contains a surprising amount of twists that most won’t see coming.
Gaming History 101 