Archive for the ‘PC/Mac’ Category
Podcast: Devil’s Castle Dracula
This week Fred is joined by Allen (@tearsofafeather) to discuss the Castlevania franchise. As a fan of both this show and Castlevania, Allen assisted in talking about the vast adventures of the first six titles for the Belmont clan (Castlevania I-IV along with Rondo of Blood and Bloodlines). Join us in one of the most technologically advanced and entertaining horror action platformers ever released.
Podcast: Square’s Swan Song
If you are going to talk significant JRPGs in America, one of the most influential series is Final Fantasy. Whether you believe that it was the last game Square may have ever made or that it was simply the last game designer Sakaguchi would be a part of, the massive success of this digital Dungeons & Dragons title started a strong fan base that continues today. In part one of our coverage, Fred and Eli “Sodoom” team up to discuss Final Fantasy I-VI including development, design, gameplay, and of course Cid.
Podcast: CIB – Complete in Box
This week Fred is joined by Chip Cella of the B-Team and Derrick H of All Games and Dead Pixel Live fame to discuss how games used to come packaged. This includes the box, instructions, and a bunch of freebies we pay good money for today.
Opening Song – Joe Esposito You’re The Best
Closing Song – Iron Maiden Run to the Hills
Podcast: Legends of Rayman
This week Fred is joined by Chip Cella of the B-Team Podcast to discuss one of the few colorful platformers born completely from the 3D generation, despite the first game playing on a 2D plain. Ubisoft’s Michel Ansel all but saved the then struggling developer/publisher and gave way to a challenging but fun series starring a character with no limbs.
Opening Song – Rayman Theme from the original Rayman on PS1
Closing Song – Madder by Groove Armada (Fred incorrectly refers to this song as Hoodlum in the show)
Review: DuckTales Remastered
Release Date: August 13, 2013
Developer: WayForward
Publisher: Capcom
Price: $14.99
Platforms: Xbox 360 (XBLA), PS3 (PSN), WiiU (eShop), PC (Steam)
Most HD remakes require a certain degree of love for the original game, especially when you consider a brunt of them just increase the resolution on lower quality assets. In the case of NES classic DuckTales, this doesn’t really apply. It was a stunning game that had few flaws when placed up against other titles of its time. There was much work to do bringing it into modern times and if you are going to do this type of upgrade while still retaining sprites, WayForward is probably the best equipped for the job. The visual result is spectacular, justifying the somewhat melodramatic title of Remastered in a mere screenshot. Unfortunately it seems the team was so focused on keeping the aesthetics intact that they spent little time on gameplay. As a result DuckTales Remastered is a title that will tug at your nostalgic heartstrings before crushing them under the minor, but significant, tweaks of this modernization.
Podcast: NADC – Not Another Doom Clone
This week Fred is flying solo and discussing the origins of the Doom clone. Named for early first person shooters, a little startup company called id Software created a reboot of Wolfenstein that eventually led to a demon slaughter in hell known as Doom. From there the flood gates opened and it seemed everyone had a game where you ran around and violently killed legions of enemies.
Review: Rise of the Triad (2013)
Release Date: 07/31/2013
Developer: Interceptor Entertainment
Publisher: Apogee Software
Platforms: PC (Windows-based only)
Availability: Digital Download Only
Services for Distribution: Steam (online DRM), Good Old Games (DRM-free)
Price: $14.99
Please Note: This is for the 2013 release. The review for the original 1994 title Rise of the Triad: Dark War can be found here.
It seems like more and more games are being rebooted from the past, specifically the mid 1990s, and given new life for today’s audience. Of all the games that probably didn’t need to be brought back, Apogee’s Rise of the Triad is high on the list. Let’s face it, the game wasn’t that good, most people didn’t play it, and save for coining “ludicrous gibs” it’s a title best lost in nostalgia. From the initial announcement I’m thinking “why are they doing this?” Well as it turns out this updated Rise of the Triad does the one thing I never expected: re-creates a classic “Doom clone” with all the dated gameplay style and features intact. It’s like the last 20 years of first-person shooters (FPS) never happened and now we’re back with a fast paced, tough as nails, rocket launcher frenzy with awkward controls and heavy metal music. It’s jarring at first and my initial hour made me want to put this title away and never think about it again – I had spent more than an hour trying to complete the first level, how was I ever going to overcome the entire game? Once I overcame the initial hurdle of figuring how to adjust for 1995 shooter gaming I was rewarded with a crazy, addictive title that just shouldn’t exist today. I’m quite happy it does.
Rise of the Triad Historical Context
Rise of the Triad is more significant than it initially seems in the annals of first-person shooter (or Doom clone) history. In fact, had it remained under its original title, Rise of the Triad: Wolfenstein 3D Part II it would probably have more awareness and fall under the pantheon of id titles still garnering praise on Steam and Good Old Games. Due to several disputes that arguably are the direct result of John Carmack, a co-founder of developer id Software and lead in milestone shooters Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, and Quake, the project was terminated in 1993 to avoid clashing with upcoming title Doom. This led to several disputes within the developer of Doom, id Software, and the planned publisher of Doom and previous publisher of several other titles, Apogee Software.
In the beginning there were two companies: developer id Software and publisher Apogee Software. For the most part Apogee was better known as its later developer 3D Realms, the team responsible for Duke Nukem 3D and originally Prey. Before that all happened, Apogee was making its money publishing id Software’s earliest successes including Commander Keen and Wolfenstein 3D. Apogee utilized the plan of “shareware” to market games, which is a method of giving people approximately 25-33 percent of a game to try out with the option to purchase the full game if interested. John Romero, the then lead designer on Doom at id Software, canceled Rise of the Triad and John Carmack decided to have id self publish so Apogee ended up not publishing Doom. id Software’s co-founder Tom Hall (Carmack and Romero were the other founders) left id to join Apogee. Apparently Hall had concern over the amount of violence and gore in Doom, a project he assisted greatly in creating. Ironically a year later when he completed work as lead designer on Rise of the Triad for Apogee, it would have even more blood and gore than Doom, including a random occurrence where an enemy would explode into gory giblets and “Ludicrous Gibs!” would appear on the screen.
Review: Rise of the Triad: Dark War (1994)
Console: PC/DOS, Mac
Released: 1994
Developer: Apogee
Publisher: Apogee
Digital Release? Yes – PC/Mac (Steam/gog.com), iOS
Price: $3-$5, depending on digital distributor
Please Note: This review is based on the original 1994 PC game, for the 2013 updated version, our review can be found here.
In 1994 the first-person shooter was rampant. Like today, you just couldn’t look over a rack of games without a large number of the genre present, although at this time they were simply known as “Doom clones“. Ironically, one of the craziest of these titles, Rise of the Triad (ROTT), was played by almost no one unless you were like me and relied heavily on free shareware titles. People keep thinking they’ve played it, but once I start describing it quickly discover it’s a different game. It’s basically a Wolfenstein 3D-like title, which makes sense because it started life as the sequel, and focuses on graphic violence, crazy traps and platforming, and plenty of different explosive weapons. You play as one of five members of spec ops group H.U.N.T. (High-risk United Nations Task-force), each has a value of 1-5 in either strength and speed that balances to the same total amount for each. It’s not as diverse as it sounds in terms of character class, but it allows mild adaptation to your play style. In the game H.U.N.T finds itself trapped on an island after a rescue boat gets destroyed and your goal is simple: kill.
Review: Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara
Originally hitting arcades back in 1993, Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom was quite the oddity. It prominently featured gameplay similar to that of its other brawler brethren, specifically the combat system of Final Fight mixed with the license quality of titles like The Simpsons, but also with the added benefit of being part of the complex D&D story. Not only was the game addictive but mild RPG elements, power-ups, and branching paths that had you etching a unique campaign were almost unheard of in arcades. Unfortunately this gameplay style and a long branching campaign required two important things: time and money. It probably costs somewhere between $5-$10 in quarters to conquer the first game, and probably twice that to take on the sequel Shadow Over Mystara and at least an hour of your time. As it stood, I never completed this game as a child, either due to lack of time or money, and I always wondered how fun it would be to have this title at home. Well finally Capcom has decided to bring this classic arcade duo in digital format and finally give free rein to a pair of arcade games that are among my favorite of all time.
Gaming History 101 