Bought Some, Found Some

On 11/02/2022 at 03:33 PM by KnightDriver

First some quick news.

I'm finished with Skylanders Giants. I went after every achievement, gave them each the old college try, and moved on. Some of those achievements are just too annoying to persist trying to get. I'll be getting back into Disney Infinity 1.0 next.

Also, my gaming buddy and I were playing NHL 21 head-to-head both with a full team and 3-on-3. I like this game but i find the AI players infuriating. They don't create sensible formations on offense and they move so irratically on defense that I can't swing my stick without getting the puck poked away from me. I had a few good moments, but it was mostly frustrating. I may practice a bit solo and see if I can get to some kind of skill that my friend has.

And, I abandonded my random play model to just dig into some games of interest. I started downloads on Immortals: Fenyx Rising, and Pillars of the Earth. I bought Battleship on a sale and enjoyed playing through the tutorial missions. It's a great Battleship game which adds a lot of new tricks like having special abilities for each of your ships and a resource pool that gives you multiple shots per turn. I can't wait to play online against real people.

Picture ROLL! New games and new ads for games.

luigi

I was really looking for Etrian Odyssey IV, but these were on my list too: Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon and Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars, which is a tactical game made by a dev who created X-Com.

Ads!

Otogi Viewtiful

Otogi Myth of Demons and Viewtiful Joe.

space cod

Space Colony and Call of Duty - the one that started it all.

simpsons buffy

Simpsons: Hit & Run and Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Chaos Bleeds.

Voodoo Vince and Batman: Rise of Sin Tzu. Wasn't that Batman game like one of the worst games? I seem to remember something about that in the press at the time.

zodiac

What the heck is the Zodiac? Does anyone remember this thing? And why are the earbuds like sperm approaching an egg? Weird. I kind of like the form factor of this thing though. I wonder what happened to it.

topgear

Top Gear Rally for the GBA SP. Two-page ad. Maybe you call it a centerfold?

It's now November and my mantra is the 2010s. I have my 3DS charged up with Fire Emblem: Awakening in the drive. That's my "retro" game so far. Hope I have time to get to it. So much to do.

Machocruz

11/02/2022 at 05:40 PM

I miss magazine ads

KnightDriver

11/05/2022 at 09:51 AM

I miss magazines. PSM, OXM, EGM, NP, GP... I used to get a lot of them. I even followed the writters into their podcast projects later on. Now, I don't know where any of them are now.

Cary Woodham

11/02/2022 at 08:58 PM

Here's a little article if you're doing games in the 2010s:

http://www.gamerdad.com/blog/2020/01/31/carys-best-games-of-the-decade-2010-to-2019-awards-show-special/

11/05/2022 at 09:52 AM

I played Okamiden and World of Final Fantasy at least.

Casey Curran Staff Writer

11/03/2022 at 08:28 PM

I remember the Tapwave Zodiac. Tried positioning itself as just as much a multimedia machine (PDA, video, music, etc) as much as a game console to carve a niche over the DS/PSP. Problem was they targeted it almost entirely to adults (I don't remember ever seeing one or it's games as a kid), but the form factor was made for smaller hands. Well that and it just didn't get much support for games. Doom 2, Tony Hawk, a port of Tomb Raider and that's about it.

11/05/2022 at 09:59 AM

It seemed to get a lot of good reviews in '03 but then was crushed by DS in '04 and PSP in '05. Ah, the days of PDAs and PDAs trying to do games too. I wonder how modable it is? I like the design of it.

SanAndreas

11/04/2022 at 12:13 PM

At oe time, Fire Emblem's entire future rode upon Awakening, and it almost didn't get a US release. I'm glad that we got Three Houses and are about to get Engage.

The only Etrian Odyssey game I've played was Untold: The Millennium Girl. I wish the series had continued on Switch, since it's one of the closest things to a continuation of Wizardry that we have.

My current games are the Switch versions of Persona 5 Royal and Bayonetta 3. Next week I'm picking up the Atari 50 Collection. It has games fromt the 8-bit line (best gaming machines of the 80s other than the NES), Lynx, and Jaguar. They even got Doug Neubauer to release the 2600's swan song, Solaris, for this one. He somehow managed to work it so that he owns Solaris and Atari has to have his consent to release it, even though they own his previous work, Star Raiders.

11/05/2022 at 10:07 AM

What's the deal with Fire Emblem Fates having so many alternate versions: Conquest, Birthright and Revelation? Seems excessive but I think I can rent them to give them a try once I figure out whether I like Awakening or not. I got Three Houses, I just need to make time to get further into it.

I used to have a lot of the Etrian Odyssey games on 3DS. I only have a couple on DS now. I've heard that a new one is coming to Switch, but not sure when. That'll be a day-one purchase for me.

I just saw the Atari 50 in the Xbox store the other day and watched the trailer. I didn't know Solaris was included. Bonus! There are a lot of developer interviews and 90 games in the collection. I may have to get that day-one.

11/06/2022 at 09:59 AM

Fates sounds like it was developed with the idea of trying to cater to both casual and hardcore SRPG fans. Birthright is more forgiving and structured more like Awakening, while Conquest is tougher and more rigidly structured, with less room for error. I'm guessing they probably took inspiration from the Zelda Oracle games in that regard.

I've gotta say, I'm more excited for Atari 50 than I should be. It seems to have a fantastic selection of games and content. Other than Solaris, I was pleased to see Miner 2049er, a favorite of the Atari 8-bit line, on board. They also made a new Yars' Revenge game, and Swordquest: Airworld, which was planned to complete the Swordquest quadrilogy but was canceled due to the 1983 crash and Warner selling Atari to Jack Tramiel. Atari Karts for the Jaguar is also on there, starring Bentley Bear from Crystal Castles.

11/09/2022 at 01:50 PM

My library has Birthright, so I'll try that.

Yeah, Airworld and everything. I may have to spring full price on this one. Not sure I can't wait for a sale.

daftman

11/04/2022 at 03:27 PM

I have Shadow Wars! Still haven't *ahem* played it...

I love seeing these old ads but yeah, I don't remember the Zodiac either. What a strange ad. It's like the time Klonoa was advertised as a disease O_O

11/05/2022 at 10:13 AM

I used to own it complete in the box. I had played several hours of it but, for whatever reason, didn't finish it. It plays just like XCOM, which is what I had hoped when I got it the first time. I could care less about the Tom Clancy license.

I think I remember that Klonoa ad. I may have it in my archives if I ever decided to fix my laptop. My phone is my computer now.

PixlBit