Video Games

Review – Grand Theft Auto III (PS2)

So who hasn’t played Grand Theft Auto III? Ok, probably a lot of people. It was a game that really redefined the idea of what a game could be back when it was first released ten years ago in 2001. I like to brag that I came up with the idea first personally, though it’s probably a real stretch. A bit of some history.

I played quite a bit of the first Grand Theft Auto with it’s more open ended top down game play. The older games were less story driven than the later 3D titles, you generally just had to collect a certain amount of money before proceeding to the next city. There were a lot of similar elements, the cities were named Liberty City, Vice City, and San Andreas, names which were later reused in the subsequent PS2 titles and based loosely on the real life cities of New Your, Miami, and Los Angeles. You would drive around getting missions from phone booths, steal cars, shoot random pedestrians. It even had the radio stations which were pretty decent though pretty much unknown music.

I also for a short while in 1999 played a decent amount of the title Midtown Madness. This is a title that never seemed to get a lot of attention though it’s notable for being the first real sandboxy style racing game. In addition tot he standard tracks, there was a free roam mode which let you explore the relatively large city of Chicago. Ok, mostly it was just “The Loop” area and Interstate 90 was altered to create an outside barrier to the city. You could still pick out where the game took place by looking at a map of Chicago. It was pretty neat.

One thing I remember most about playing Midtown Madness was that it reminded me a bit of GTA’s free drive experience only more three dimensional. I always thought it would be pretty awesome if you could actually get out of the car in Midtown Madness and run around the city. They could even have missions where you were like a cop or a hitman. Maybe you could have an apartment where you keep your junk and possibly even an online aspect. It would be totally awesome.

Then Grand Theft Auto III happened 2 years later.

And so I bought a Playstation 2. Three titles drove this purchase, Metal Gear Solid, Final Fantasy X, and Grand Theft Auto III. Here’s a bonus fun fact, I bought my PS3 in December/January near the end of 2001, I had those three games alone for it until roughly a year later when I added three more titles, Metal Gear Solid 2, Final Fantasy X-2, and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

I have played a LOT of GTA3. Probably more than any other game I have ever owned. I once figured up based on how many in game days I had on my save file and how many save attempts I had made and how long an in game hour took to calculate I had played around 300 hours of the game, and this was back in like 2001 or 2002 soon after the game had been released. I’ve explored every nook and cranny of Liberty City countless times. At one point I could locate every one of the 100 packages without a guide. I’ve completed the game to 100% completion without being arrested or killed or failing a mission (the game keeps track) and without once doing a “save and reload because I had “messed up”.

It really is an amazing game. It gets a lot of flack for the violence and crime aspect but even that is only as bad as a person makes it. Yeah, you can go around shooting pedestrians and hookers and make it a complete gore fest. Or you can play the story and get an interesting mobster plot. Yeah, there is some violence but not any more than your average R rated action film. Hell the whole series is really just a series of movie parodies strung cleverly into a crazy plot. The problem only comes up when you get players who can’t manage to get anywhere in the story that just run around randomly shooting things. The first game is even pretty tame, especially next to Vice City which takes it’s Scarface homage pretty seriously.

From a gameplay standpoint it was pretty revolutionary. For years, games were about doing what was required, the way it was required. Sure, you had your warp zones and some games like Castlevania or Metroid would let you roam a bit but never before was there a game so encouraging of doing… whatever. It wasn’t just the freedom to wander around the city that made it work either. The city itself was a massive living creature. You could just stand on the sidewalk and thugs or businessmen or old ladies would just wander around. Cars drive around, sports cars, taxis, cops, delivery vans. People would get in the taxis they would argue with each other, they’d talk to you as you walked by, it was like being in a real city. The whole game just reeked of atmosphere and you didn’t have to interact with it to trigger activity.

This was coupled with exceptional cinematic fully voiced cut scenes to drive the plot. Sure, many of the plot points were lifted from movies like The Godfather but it worked so well as a whole. There was mystery and betrayal and vengeance and even subtle nods within the plot to earlier events. This wasn’t just random events happening. Characters interacted with each other, they referenced other events, it was cohesive. Even things that you don’t even really realize like the Asian Guy with you at the start of the game in the jail car. The Columbians kidnap him and thus you end up free and the game starts, but later, you effectively end up taking out the Columbians in your quest for Vengeance.

These minor points just help the whole things feel so much more cohesive. It creates a great universe that works with itself, which is part of the whole reason the game works so well.

There was also the openness of the missions themselves. Sure, many more or less required one path to completion but many of them were very open to the player’s preference. Say you’ve been asked to kill some mob guy. If you’re the gung ho type you can charge in and assault his guard and the character with pistols and machine guns blazing. Want the more subtle route, just find yourself a sniper rifle and pick him off from a distance. Maybe you’re the kamikaze type and want to just plow through his posse in a speedy sports car and hope none of them are carrying shotguns or rocket. You were very often just given a general objective and a map marker and the gaps are something the player gets to fill in. Even if you were terrible the game also didn’t really have any lives. There was no real penalty to dying, you would just wake up at the hospital or police station minus guns and some money. No lives, no continues, just a simple “Try harder, PS, also you’ll have to find a pistol”

So here we are, it’s been ten whole years since GTA3. A game that spawned many sequels and spin offs, Vice City, San Andreas, Liberty City Stories, Vice City Stories, GTA4, Chinatown Wars, The lost and the Damned, The Ballade of Gay Tony, hell I’m probably forgetting some. Then there are knockoff series with the same gangster sandbox concept, Saint’s Row, True Crime, Mafia, Just Cause, Simpsons Hit & Run, The Getaway, there are a lot of them. It’s a game that inspired many and crated a whole genre of gaming. Not many games can claim this title. It also holds up pretty well to time, even with it’s sequels, playing through it again can lead to new methods and a whole new experience.

Review – Super Mario 64 DS (NDS)

Jun 5th, 2018

by Ramen Junkie.

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There are re-releases of games, and then there are remakes of games. Super Mario 64 DS certainly falls into the remake category. It’s essentially the same game at the core but it adds so many new features that it feels more like a remake. I suppose really it would need more of a graphics overhaul to be a true remake.

I didn’t set out to own Mario 64 DS (Abbreviations from 2 systems? How does that work?). When I purchased my DS, Best Buy was running a promotion to get the game free. One might conclude that I didn’t really want this game, and they would be correct. However I’d have to say it’s probably the most enjoyable game I have for the system. And that’s saying a lot. I own 5 DS games and only Metroid Prime: Hunters was a disappointment.

At the core, this is the exact same game as Super Mario 64 DS. However there are many really nice additional features added to the mix. Most notable is the new characters, which changes the plot slightly. Instead of starting as Mario, you start off playing as Yoshi. Mario’s been locked up, along with Luigi and Wario. That’s two Mario based games in a row where Mario’s been captured (see also Princess Peach), it would seem our persnickety plumber is starting to slip a bit with age.

As Yoshi you’ll have to progress along collecting a few stars on your own before you can even think of rescuing anyone. Each new “floor” of the castle (divided by Bowser Keys), presents a new hero to be unlocked. Each hero adds new skills to the mix. This 4 way cast is analogous to the cast of Mario 2, whether intentional or not. Mario and Luigi have comparable differences that they shared in Mario 2, Luigi jumps higher an is more “floaty”. He can also run on water for a short period of time, a skill that is ultimately useless. Wario takes the place of Toad. Wario jumps lower and moves more “bricklike”, but he’s generally stronger. Yoshi replaces Princess Toadstool with his short range flight ability.

The old “cap System” is also gone, or at least revamped. Instead of special ability caps, you have character change caps. Only Yoshi lacks a cap of any sort. All of the power up blocks contain he same power flower, the effect they give is dependant on the character. Luigi becomes invisible, matching is floaty high jumping air based personality; Wario becomes metal, matching his strong stocky personality; Yoshi breathes fireballs; and Mario turns into a balloon (or flight cap on certain levels).

There are many obstacles that only certain characters can pass. For example, Mario may need his wall kick and only Wario can break the large dark blocks. This makes some previous tasks a lot easier, especially Luigi’s ability to helicopter high jump from the ducking position. The Shifting Sands land can be traversed easily by Luigi with this move where previously you’d have to make a lot of treacherous trips over quicksand.

There are also new stars. Thirty new stars to be exact. Each level now has 7 stars to find and there are a mess of new hidden stars. Some of the missions have even been altered slightly to accommodate the new cast.

Finally there are also a bunch of mini games to be unlocked. As you travel through the castle, you’ll encounter rabbits. Catching these rabbits yields a key that unlocks a new mini game. I personally did not find the mini games that fun. They all involve the touch screen and most are repeated several times only with new graphics sets. I’ve never cared for mini games since they tend to serve no ultimate purpose to the main quest.

Other than the boring Mini games, this is one spot on title. Despite being a remake, it offers plenty for gamers to enjoy. Super Mario 64 was a solid game to begin with, the new features don’t change that one bit.

Review – Contra (NES)

May 29th, 2018

by Ramen Junkie.

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Contra, why would we want to review a game that is like ten Twenty years old? I mean why not do the SIMs Second Life? or Lord of Destruction World of Warcraft? Or Half Life Half Life 2 – Episode 2, or whatever, the list goes on, the idea is why not something current. Well sometimes a game is just too go to be considered too old. When you can spend an entire night playing a ten year old game over and over you know it’s got to be a pretty decent game.

You see back before 3D everything there was 2D everything. Back before war games were all first person shooters, they were side scrolling platform games. The platform game is almost a lost art. Occasionally they still get released, great games like Strider 2, Silhoette Mirage or of course the immortal (literally) Mega Man series. Or you could also count the 1000 pieces of shit cranked out daily for the GBC (Trust only those made by Komani and Capcom, and sometimes not even those). Anyway Contra beget Wolfenstein, beget Doom, beget Half Life . When someone asks what the best game ever is be sure to reply River City Ransom, but when someone asks what the third best game ever is be sure to say Contra (Half Life being number 2 duh.)

So the plot for Contra is, you are the military’s elite commando and its your job to combat the entire Red Faction army. At least its probably something like that, I don’t have the instruction book around and there is no real in game story. For 6 levels you fight Red Faction forces and break into their main base only to suddenly be fighting a bunch of aliens. Where the hell did that plot point come from?

Anyway after killing the Alien leader, A.K.A. the “Obligatory Konami Brain Boss” you helicopter off the island (where did the chopper come from anyway?) and the island explodes. You can always tell a great game because at the end the hero will fly away in a helicopter or a space ship as the island or planet they were fighting on completely blows up for no real apparent reason. Then you’ll get a nice congratulatory message about saving the world then the credits roll then the best part comes. The game starts over. Back to level one.

There are literally hundreds of these Red Faction islands around, all of them identical except that each time the soldier will have a bit more ammo (as in they shoot you more). After blowing up one island where does the chopper go? Why it flies off to the next island. Good work soldier, you saved the universe, from one threat, now it’s back to work on the next island. This gives the game great replay value. Just put in the KONAMI CODE for 30 lives then see home many times you can complete the game before loosing all 30 lives and 3 continues (90 lives +extra lives from points). How’s THAT for a great way to waste an afternoon or a whole day.

But wait, what about your buddy, he want’s some of the action too? Well sometimes the military sends its marines in by the pairs. You can play two players in this game simultaneously. Which is twice the fun, expect when the Spread gun appears, because everyone always wants the spread gun.

Review – Doc Clock and the Toasted Sandwich of Time (PC)

May 22nd, 2018

by Ramen Junkie.

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Stickmen Studios | Oct 15, 2010

Doc Clock is an interesting Platform based Puzzle game. Ok, it’s way more platform game than puzzle game. All of the puzzle part involves assembling various parts you find along the way into different vehicles.

The basic plot involves Doc Clock and his robot backpack companion. You start out in Doc Clock’s lab and after accidentally turning your cat into a plant, you set out to build a time machine so you can travel back in time 5 minutes to save your cat. By mistake, you travel many many years into the future and the time machine parts become scattered throughout the area. As you trek along, you discover more and more parts for the time machine in each level. You also find a variety of parts to augment the time machine into something more versatile. There are wheels of several sizes, propellers to help you fly for increasingly longer periods of time, umbrellas to help you float instead of just falling and springs to help give you a quick jump. There are also junk parts like refrigerators that can be used as battering rams if needed.

This vehicle aspect is fairly neat though unfortunately not nearly as dynamic as it sounds. Most levels involve slapping wheels on the basic time machine, the umbrella on top and positioning the propellers to give the best control while airborne. This is a bit of a complaint, though on the other hand, if it had been more complex you’d end up stopping constantly to reconfigure the vehicle, which would slow the game’s pace down to a slow boring trudge. So in the end I suppose it’s a decent balance. Also, though you collect a large assortment of propellers over the course of the game, you only really ever need 2-3 of the more powerful one’s in your inventory at any given time.

The world wouldn’t be much fun without some sort of confrontation. In the future, robots have destroyed all life and human kind and have taken over the planet. Unfortunately they are also all idiots, which is part of the game’s plot to some level, though it also means they really aren’t much of a threat. Robots are killed by simply ramming into them. Most of them simply stand around chatting to each other, occasionally there are robots that throw rocks at you.

The game is also full of some reasonable though cheesy humor. A lot of this is delivered through insults from the Backpack robot or in the previously mentioned dialogues between enemy robots. There is a some vague plot implications going on involving the dystopian future being Doc Clock’s fault.

In general, it’s a fairly simple game, though it’s pretty fun as a basic platform game. It’s real problem is it’s lack of any true difficulty. Many of the levels are easily passed by assembling a basic flying car and blasting through the level jumping when need be. There is a bit of trickiness added to the later levels when the lava shows up but it’s still nothing too complex. It’s fun, but a little easy.

Doc Clock: The Toasted Sandwich of Time can be found on Steam here.

Review – Trine (PC)

Apr 24th, 2018

by Ramen Junkie.

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Frozenbyte | July 2, 2009

Trine is a game that takes several separate concepts and pushes them together into one game. You have the core platform action game, where you jump around and battle monsters. There’s some puzzle aspects where you need to open gates and trigger buttons. There’s a bit of RPG element involved with the party of characters, story and level system. Finally it’s all distilled and simplified to the point where it’s fairly simple to play making it just a little but of a casual game. Often titles with such a complex mashup end up being an over ambitious mess but Trine manages to pull things together very well.

The plot revolves around three distinct characters that you must swap between throughout the game to progress along. The initial levels play each character individually before the meet as a clever tutorial for how each one works. There is the Knight, who is strong and best suited for combat. He also has the ability to toss heavy objects and is equipped with a shield needed to deflect objects. There is the Thief, who uses her bow for ranged attacks and is equipped with a grapple hook used to climb past certain obstacles. Finally there is the Wizard, who can conjure objects on an as needed basis, useful for climbing past tall objects or crushing enemies. Each class has a distinct use, the Knight works best for basic combat but can’t easily pass most puzzles. The Wizard is great for puzzles but is terrible at combat, the Thief lands in between, though she’s not great for either task.

This makes it essential that everyone is kept alive. It’s possible, for example, for your Wizard to die while the other two carry on. This may mean you’ll have to find new methods of circumventing certain obstacles. Where the Wizard could easily conjure a block to hit a switch, not having him may require navigating a more difficult path in order to manually trigger the switch. As an example. Fortunately, the checkpoints will revive fallen comrades so you will rarely be completely without them.

Unfortunately there isn’t always an easy way to solve a puzzle without particular party members. Chances are it will end up being easier to just kill the remaining characters off and retry from the previous checkpoint. Speaking of the puzzles, they are don’t tend to be very complex. Most of them involve dropping blocks on buttons or stacking blocks to climb over a wall. It’s not a terrible downside but don’t go in expecting something super complex or Earth shattering.

The presentation and overall feel tends to make up for it. The enemies are fairly repetitious but the environments are very well made and varying. There is also a very well done voice track for the characters and the narration between stages. Also, despite some of the repetitiveness of the enemies, they tend to come in bursts that last just long enough that you don’t quite get tired of battling them while not being TOO easily defeated.

In short, Trine is a very well done game. It’s got a lot of strong points in style, presentation, and story. The game play itself is well done though it could use more monsters to fight besides the endless skeletons. Still, the few flaws aren’t enough to keep this game from coming recommended.