Overview forgames

Better late than never

OMG!  I was completely ignorant that yesterday was the 15th anniversary of the US launch of the Dreamcast.

It was the console that did everything right, but still failed to get a firm grasp on the market.  Sure, there were a few factors that caused it to go down in less than two years from its US launch date on 9/9/1999, but it sure gave a lasting impact in the mind of gamers in that short amount of time when it was out on store shelves.

Originally acting like a home version of Sega’s own arcade games -- similar to when SNK made a home console (AES) of their arcade system (MVS)--, the Dreamcast would shortly grow its own legs by including an incredible library of unique and fun games developed by 1st, 2nd, and 3rd party game studios.

I believe this was Sega’s shining years as they were, at the time, losing the race in the console battle during the Saturn years and were desperate to come out on top during the new console generation.  And as the old saying goes: desperate times call for desperate measures.

Sega of America would even go as far as to focus all their attention on the Dreamcast and ditch the Saturn a year before the Dreamcast’s scheduled release date; leaving Sega fans adrift without a console for months.  Sure, it was a jerk move, but it gave them time and money to invest in the Dreamcast’s marketing and games development.  It would also be a time when they would reorganize their internal development studios and create fantastic teams like Smilebit and United Game Artists.

Being a great emulator of their arcade games due in part of the Dreamcast being nearly the same as Sega’s arcade board Naomi, the ports were nearly identical to their arcade counterparts.  Some of these games included Crazy Taxi, The House of the Dead 2, Virtua Tennis, and 18 Wheeler: American Pro Trucker.  Close ally Capcom also built some of their arcade games on Naomi hardware, too; giving gamers incredible fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Power Stone, Capcom vs. SNK, and Project Justice.

Now don’t get me wrong.  Arcade games are great and all, but when it came to first and second party developers who built games exclusively for the Dreamcast, is when I believe Sega really brought the big guns in regard to creativity and style.  For example, to promote their online gaming services, ChuChu Rocket! had players connecting to each other via dial-up and trying to direct mice into rockets.  For music rhythm gamers, Space Channel 5 would be right up their alley with its upbeat and fast paced music.  And for people looking for something new, the ambitious adventure game Shenmue from creator Yu Suzuki and team AM2 should get their attention.  Other notable games include, but now limited to, Jet Grind Radio, Phantasy Star Online, Sega Marine Fishing, and Sonic Adventure.

Looking back, Sega during years 1999 and 2000 were probably at their peak in terms of high creativity output, and the Dreamcast was right in the middle of it all to act as a canvas for these artistic bunch of developers to place their ideas on to.  I am glad to see the gaming community always celebrating the Dreamcast every year in September to give it the praise it deserves.

Only YOU can prevent forest fires

One of the games shown at PAX Prime this past week was Firewatch.  And based on the trailer I watched for it, it seems to be in the same vein as Gone Home (and that’s a positive statement).  The dialog between Henry, the character you play, and his boss, Delilah, is what initially caught my attention.  There seems to be a lot of drama between those two.  Also factor in addition to the tension between these two that Henry’s still has job as a forest ranger to accomplish and that there’s a looming danger of a humongous forest fire that may cross where he is stationed at.

I don’t know when this game is scheduled to be released but here’s hoping before the end of 2014, because I wanna play Firewatch now!

The rat's palace this ain't

I was shown this incredibly suspenseful game called Five Nights at Freddy's.  It’s basically a point-and-click survival horror that has you playing the role as the new night watchmen for a children’s pizza restaurant.  The problem is that the animatronic animals can roam around at night with the high possibility of killing you and stuffing your carcass into one of the spare mechanical costumes.  It’s a game, at the minimum, worth watching videos of people playing it and getting the bejesus scared out of them.

Something new / Strings, guitars, and gitaroos

Here’s that new piece of content I keep spouting on about.  It will be a feature that will contain a series of short write-ups for games I’ve played.  I’ll start with ones I recently played but I’m also planing to write some stuff regarding classics from the Genesis and NES eras too.  Actually, I’m hoping I’ll be able to cover a wide spectrum of games from many consoles and PC games.  I plan to keep this feature going for a while, so get used to it.  Or ignore it.  Your choice.

Gitaroo Man Lives!

Here’s the first entry of this new feature.  Starting things off easy with a rhythm game for the PSP.  I didn’t get into this game until way, way after it was released.  So long in fact that it was only five bucks used at the local game store; complete with manual and clean of any scratches and cracks.  Buying it solely only on the covert art, it turned out to be a diamond in the rough.

Hover! the sequel?

Well, sort of.  The 1995 game included with Windows 95 now has a kind-of remastered version for web browsers.  It was released last year from Microsoft -- the creators of the original -- and I’m happy to say this new Hover! is in the same spirit of gameplay as the original.  Same rules apply: capture your enemy’s flags before they get all of yours.  It runs at a silky smooth 60fps and can work with any web browser that supports WebGL.  New to the game is a multiplayer mode that requires you to send a generated code to others you want to play with.  Visually, it’s awesome to see they structured the levels like the original, but it’s a bummer to see they used textures that make the levels look cold and sterile.

Funny thing is that it doesn’t seem to work on Internet Explorer, but it works perfectly fine on Firefox.  D'oh!

HOT TIP: type “bambi” at the start screen before clicking anything else. ;-)

Ghost in the Sh…wait, what?

Recently got into a class-based shooter called NeoTokyo.  It’s a pretty cool game, and that’s a lot coming from someone who doesn’t care for class-based shooters, or just multiplayer games in general.  It’s a mod game that’s free to download from Steam.

Heavily inspired by anime titles like Ghost in the Shell and Akira, NeoTokyo has you in a setting that takes place 30-40 years in the future.  A failure in attempting to alter the Japanese Constitution so it can engage in offensive military actions causes a rift.  A group from the armed forces starts a coup that was close to succeeding.  To uphold the constitution and to prevent further coups, the Prime Minister forms a new branch for the Interior Ministry called the National Security Force (NSF).  A new group calling themselves JINRAI is attempting a new coup.  Clashes between these two forces are now occurring all throughout Japan and the thoughts and minds of this once stable country is now torn in two.

This game has large levels that contain a combination of closed-in hallway type sections and large open areas.  You pick to side with either JINRAI or NSF and then pick your class and weapon.  Mainly a Capture the Flag game, you hunt out for the one flag in the level that’s called a Ghost.  It’s a torso of an android, and once someone grabs it, it gains them the ability to linkup to a satellite that grants the person to see where everyone is at on the map.  The game seems well balanced and is fun to play – even though I get killed rather quickly.  There are neat gadgets to use like cloaking devices, nightvision goggles, and motionvision sensors.  And taking place in the future, each level has neat futuristic touches to them.

Don’t know how rare this is, but on my second play, a modder for the game joined our team.  Some people were slightly giddy about this.  I thought it was pretty rad.