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 On 11/08/2016 at 12:57 AM by KnightDriver See More From This User » |
After seeing the films Inferno and Dr. Strange this weekend, I finally got some gaming in. I played through both volumes of Atari games on the XBO, probably a hundred games, and I put in some time with XCOM 2. Details below.
Inferno was ok. It's just about a supervillain who uses Dante's Divine Comedy as a basis for an elaborate puzzle to find a weapon of mass destruction. There's a twist I didn't see coming in the story that made it pretty fun.
Dr. Strange was pretty good. This was his origin story, again, and I was skeptical, but I enjoyed it. Good acting all around and lots of martial arts fighting and bizarre special effects. I do like the art in the original comics, expressing some of the psychedelia of the 60s, and it's attempted here; although, not well enough for my liking. The movie's colors are a bit dark. I like the primary colors used in 60s psychedelic art. Some of the comics do that really well. Oh well, you can't have it all. I'm just glad Dr. Strange got his own movie. I thought that would never happen.
Then I played through both collections of Atari Flashback Classics Volume 1 and 2. There are arcade and console games here and a few prototype games. Actually, of all hundred or so games, my favorite was a prototype called Save Mary I'd never heard of before.
As shown above, Mary is at the bottom of a pit and water is slowly rising. You have a crane and have to build her a platform with blocks that come in from the left and right side of the screen. When you make a platform for her to stand on, she jumps up; and when she's high enough, you can reach her with your crane and move her to one of the safe spots. Then you start a new screen where she's trapped again, but this time you get different shaped blocks that are harder to stack. I wish there was an achievement attached to this game because I wanted to really play more of it. I guess I will go back to it even without achievements.
As for the rest of the Atari games, the modern controller just can't handle most of them well enough to be enjoyable. Yes, you can adjust the sensitivity of the analog sticks but even that doesn't help that much. The movements are just not right to simulate a spinner, like in Tempest; or a roller ball, like in Missile command. I always have this problem with Atari collections on modern consoles, but I get them anyway. Silly me. Well, at least I discovered Save Mary.
Then I put in some time with XCOM 2. I started over on the lowest difficulty. Every time I got a new recruit, I recustomized him/her as someone I knew or a video game character. After a handful of missions, I only lost one soldier, but I had lots of injuries. The turn-based system is so darn cool. I love using overwatch mode and setting up ambushes. Very satisfying.
Finally, I've been playing Dragon Quest VII all week, here and there. I've solved the major conflict in Alltrades Abbey and am about to asign jobs. There are a lot of them, so I'm a little overwelmed. Maybe I'll make them all sailors. Ha!
Well, next weekend will probably be a Doom weekend for me. Gamestop has a special on Saturday only for Pro members to get Doom for $20. I'm all over that.
Bye!
Oh yeah, go vote on Tuesday. Why less then 50% of the population in the U.S. votes is a mystery to me. We're supposed to have a representational government. That means everyone should participate. Come on!
I don't know anything about Dr. Weird or Dr. Strange or whatever his name is, but I have heard good things about the movie so I may try and see it sometime maybe.
I wonder if those Atari Flashback collections are available on PS4 as well. I'm looking at getting a PS4 sometime.
Have you ever played Activision Anthology on the PS2? It's REALLY good!
I just finished my Skylanders Imaginators review. It'll post a bit later on.
Also I voted early.
You don't need to know anything about Dr. Weirdo to enjoy the movie. It's just a guy who discovers the east and the mystical arts, which in this world, knows magic.
Atari Flashback is on PS4.
I have that Activision collection. It's great. I kept thinking of the Activision games while playing this Atari collection. I want a new collection for the current systems too.
I can't wait for the review!
Dr. Strange looks cool. I've heard they kept it psychedelic a little, which make me not want to drag my mom to it. I do want to see it though.
I got to get back to Xcom 2. I've just been so busy with writing and D&D I gotta just chill and play something.
It's mostly very down to earth as psychedelia goes. I really want to see it again in 3D though because those sequences are clearly built with 3D in mind.
I keep restarting XCOM 2. I'm not sure I'll ever finish it because of difficulty, but I'll still play replay it anyway for the excellent battles.
For me other than perhaps Missile Command's cursor, the control issue isn't as huge. I played a lot of these games at home using standard Atari sticks as well as third party sticks like the Slik Stik. Since I got acclimated to these games with joysticks, I don't notice it as much with controllers - I got this collection on PS4 and am using Dualshock 4 -, but I can definitely see how trackball controls might be useful. My two favorite arcade games on this collection are Centipede and Millipede, which both used then. I tried the Save Mary game, too. Still wish these collections would feature Solaris more regularly.
I voted early, on last Tuesday. In the 2014 election, Oklahoma and Texas both had about 30% voter turnout, which is pretty sorry. OK and TX are regularly featured on the list of states with the worst voter turnout. Then the people in those states complain loudly and bitterly about the governor, President, and everybody in between. Get off your butts and viote!
Mainly it was the sensitivity of the analog sticks. I found it hard to control with precision in games like Breakout even after lowering the sensitivity in the settings. I remember the feel of the paddles on the Atari 2600. I had really fine control. I don't have that here and it frustrates me.
I heard millennials didn't vote much in this election. Is it apathy? What's up with that?
Doctor Strange doesn't appeal to me. I'll probably catch it when it comes to video. I typed "tape" before deleting it and typed in video. I can't be the only person who still refers to movies as tape when they're available to watch at home.
As for voting its about time people show up to vote, but seriously why weren't these folks at previous elections? Voting is something we should be honored to do especially when people have died for that right.
I was just thinking the other day about all the magnetic tape related media I used to own. It's so far gone now, isn't it.
I got into my first ever political group discussion at a Gamestop today. Two employees and one ex-employee were talking very loudly about it and I kind of joined in. They seemed angry that people hadn't voted, especially people of their age group - milennials. They were talking about people voting for internet meme imaginary animals that made me laugh. One guy was very serious. He had a "stop fascism" t-shirt and said it wasn't funny. I guess not, but really, it was.
I say, you may not like the choices given, but participate in the process. Not participating doesn't do much and is very cynical.
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