PixlBit

Chrono Crossing 2002
My pick for 2002 wasn't a hard choice at all. Metroid Prime was without question the best game I had played back then. In the years prior to then, I kept trying to imagine what Metroid would be like if they designed it as a first-person game, but I just couldn't visualize it and assumed it would be impossible to make. But Retro Studios proved me wrong (along with many other concerned fans of the series). Here are my highlights:

- I really appreciated how Retro Studios gave thought to how her suit could funtion beyond just upgrading weapons and her armor. The multiple funtionality of her visor was a genius addition.

-Scanning entries from both the Chozo and Space Pirate logs were a great way to learn about their history, while still advancing the story without a word of spoken dialouge throughout the entire adventure. I especially enjoyed reading the Space Pirate logs because it helped me to see them as much more than just lackies of Mother Brian.

-Music and sound effects (especially when using a function of her power suit) were spot on and fit that style of gameplay perfectly.

-The platforming & exploration elements felt just right. Everything made sense within the context of playing in the first-person view.

-Finally and perhaps most importantly (LOL), the incident on the space station where Samus sustains major damage from an explosion gave a plausible explination as to why she doesn't have the weapons/abilites that she otherwise would have had from her previous mission.

It's as if Retro Studios knew that people like myself have jokingly pondered over the ridiculousness of having to collect some of the same upgrades you technically should already have when its been established that the character had all that stuff already at some point prior in the game's timeline. Just thought it was a nice touch that easily could have been overlooked.

I know there's a bunch of other details I didn't mention (like the even pacing of action vs. exploration), but I'll let one of you comment on whatever I missed.

Overall, best game of 2002 for me.

Screw Prime.  Fusion is my pick for 2002.  There is just something about Fusion that I love...  maybe it's the artwork.

Stage Select:  I have just one thought.  I want NES era Castlevania to be tackled by Yacht Club.  I know probably a no-brainer, but still. 

Great show guys. You always seem to make it work with 1 man down.

Thumbs up on that Shadow of the Colossus video you recommended Julian. I finally got around to seeing it and wasn't disappointed (outside of their not being a 17th hidden colossus). Hearing about the possible alternate ending made me think how cool it could have been if you resurrected the girl, turned into the 17th Colossus, and you played as her to defeat the hidden colossus.

It sucks that we didn't get more stage select entries but it did feel like a tall order. You got to love Patrick's imagination. His first stage select topic and answer was unlike anything I could have imagined. He chooses topics that require some great thought but unfortunately  I know I cant take up 5 minutes with 2 pages of text. I originally wanted to choose Chrono Cross. There's been a theory that you can enter the main island of Chrono Trigger from Chrono Cross. Every time you try there's a waterfall or something blocking your path. I had a whole story in mind years ago but way too long for a short podcast segment that I'm not actually speaking in.

Julian you really need to stop worrying about your FPS skills in Overwatch. There's plenty of characters that don't require the twitch FPS skills of a teenager. Mei, Mercy, Winston, Symmetra, Reinhardt, and Zenyatta can easily be effective for someone who plays FPS games regularly enough. Reaper, Bastion, Junkrat (who I'd recommend for beginners), Torbjorn, and D-Va may require a bit more skill but if you beat Doom you're plenty qualified.  

Not sure if we'll get around to it on this episode, but I did end up buying Overwatch. D.va and Soldier 76 remain my best characters (odd, since they are more twitchy than others), but I've been doing a good job with Mercy, and I just discovered Junkrat and like him a lot. Even though I know I can contribute with support characters like Mercy I find that boring, and really want to be good enough to get decent kill streaks. That will take practice though.

Glad to hear you finally jumped in. It's a great game and you should get your money's worth. With all DLC being free you can pop in at any time and not have to worry about it. It also has that HUGE Blizzard audience so it'll be around til part 2 is released.

Stage Select:
1. Santa Monica gets Castlevania: I love Lords of Shadow and the spectacle of God of War. While I prefer LoS combat to GoW I'd be interested in seeing where this goes.

2. Whoever did Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge gets Starfox: Crimson Skies had amazing gameplay and a great campaign/multiplayer. I'd love to see how they revitalize Starfox.

3. Bioware gets the Chrono Series: Chrono Cross had plenty of unique characters. Unfortunately most aren't fleshed out that well. Bioware is plenty capable of making unique and fleshed out characters. The original Star Wars: KOTOR had a gameplay system that I believe would fit a new Chrono Cross. Add in a solid morale system and I could have the game of my dreams.


Chrono Crossing 2002: Guilty Gear X2

To be honest it should be Metroid Prime but I'm sure that'll already be talked about extensively. So I'll go Guilty Gear.

It managed to differentiate itself from Street Fighter and be amazing in the process. Unique characters, Roman Cancels, False Roman Cancels, Burst meters, rock music, 1 hit kill finishers, and so much more made this game so different from other 2D Fighters. You could also unlock a 2nd moveset per characrer through extensive play practically doubling the roster. It's a shame we never got the Street Fighter vs Guilty Gear crossover. 

Stage Select: I would want Psyonix, developers of Rocket League, to make a new Twisted Metal game. The physics and controls for Rocket League are perfect, similar to controlling a RC car and having those controls in a Twisted Metal game would be really fun. I bought Twisted Metal Black for PS4 and was playing it recently, the controls in the game make it hard to go back to. Even the game mechanics of the boost and the fact that the cars can “jump” would migrate very well. I like the Twisted Metal games for the interesting characters and seeing their endings, so having it play great like Rocket League would be awesome.

Chrono Crossing 2002: My choice is Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, my favorite in the series. I played this game endlessly when it came out. My favorite skateboarding game by far. The original for Playstation was a huge hit at my school, everyone played it. I knew all the songs by heart, all the skaters by name and all the signature tricks. Wolverine and Darth Maul were the hidden characters, which I thought was really cool. I was so into this game, that I even started to get into skating myself, but I never really was any good at it.

Also, just to update on Ape Escape 2 from my previous comment, the voices on the Playstation 4 version sound British or something, so maybe they just ported the European version? Really weird indeed.

Long time listener, first time commenter:

For my Stage Select pick, I think I would like to see Ready at Dawn make a new Syphon Filter game. The Order was gorgeous and I liked the game even though it seems a lot of people didn't. The Syphon Filter series was a lot of fun, I am curious what it would look like updated for Playstation 4 with visual and gameplay enhancements. For Chrono Crossing, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 was easily my favorite game of that year. Online multiplayer was not really a thing yet so it was fun playing this game with friends at each other houses and no one used all the OP characters. All the characters and guest were fun. Just watched Playstation Experience press conference and the announcement of a new entry has me super hyped.

Welcome! Looking forward to reading these selections tonight!

You should make  Pilxlbit Community page on PSN :)

FINALLY JOINED! do we post here for next ep!

Also I really wanted to do @someboss stage select: I wanted dishonored missions with the npcs. its the only game with tru npcs. NO ONE HELPS YOU EVER! i think thats why the story works, but tandem or coop with the weapons guy or a soldier- WOULD HAVE LOVED IT!

It's about time! Now we just have to get you commenting before we record!

also I retract my last comment- the forums are all spam ahha

I'd forgotten we had forums. LOL.

While I can clean up the spam here in the blogs, I can't do anything in the forums. And yes they are pretty much all spam.

Yeah... the forums were taken over by the machines. Someone launched Skynet and sent the full spam bot army our way. Luckily, I was able to run some scripts and clean them up programmatically. I believe they should be usable now!

I'd love nothing more than to get them in motion, so please feel free to throw some threads up for discussion!

Chrono Crossing 2002

My favorite game of 2002 was Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance for PS2. My love of RPG's can be traced back to Dark Alliance, perhaps earlier with Zelda but most people don't seem to count those. Because I fell in love with this game I was willing to give similar games a chance in the future. I wouldn't have ended up playing Champions of Norrath, The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect, or Dark Souls if Baldur's Gate hadn't broken me in and showed me how awesome it is to hack enemies to pieces, pick up loot, invest attribute points, and repeat the process on stronger enemies.