I’ve played quite a few games this week! Firstly, I finally
beat Far Cry 2. It’s been a long journey to get to the end of that game and
while I don’t see myself coming back to it, I’m glad I’ve played it. It seems
to be the core experience of what modern open world games eventually became;
the old games may not be able to match the new in terms of content, but it was
developed at a time when the idea was new, fresh, and waiting to see what could
be done with it.
After beating a long heavy game like Far Cry 2 I needed
something light and playable to enjoy, and I left that task to my old sparring
partner Streets of Rage 2. I’m getting quite far in to the final level before I
lose all of my lives, but the boss rush on the seventh level still tanks most
of them. I’m also enjoying playing as Axel more than I did before; as long as
you time his moves correctly, he can be devastating.
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| I'd love to be able to play the BGM on classical guitar... |
I went round to a friend’s flat who had a Sega Mega Drive
console, and I played a couple of games with them including Columns and the
original Mortal Kombat. Columns is as good fun as ever; I lost the game this
time through being very tired (it had been a long day) and doing the cardinal
sin with puzzle games, which is to try and be clever and look for combos. I’m
sure, with more skill, this would be a great tactic. But right now, just trying
to match three gems is good enough. Combos tend to happen by themselves. Mortal
Kombat was a pleasure to play again. I found myself remembering some of the old
moves that Johnny Cage and Scorpion used to do, and took no small amount of
pleasure in using them against Kirsty and her friends who didn’t. It took me
right back to when I used to play it at home and organise mini-tournaments with
my friends; we’d knock each other out and the winner would get a sweet. Great
times.
My new game for this week was Killer 7 on the Playstation 2.
I bought it at some point last year thinking that this is a game of some
reverence from the reknowned developer Suda51, and therefore must be a good
game. It certainly succeeded in making me wonder what in the world it’s all
about. I just about understand the shooting and I understand why it’s on rails,
but I’m not quite getting the significance of the different characters, and why
they’re being guided through the game by a guy in a red fetish suit who feels
the need to constantly tell me I’m in a tight spot. Maybe I haven’t had enough
time with it yet, and if I give it more time the plot might hook me in a little
more. We’ll see how it works out but it’s not like I’ve got nothing else to be
playing!
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| Very hard game! |
I had a go with a couple of the Arcade games on the Sega
Megadrive Ultimate Collection. I tried out Zaxxon, having heard it mentioned
several times on Metal Jesus’ Youtube channel. It’s an isometric shooter that
has you moving higher or lower, rather than up and down. It was probably phenomenal
at the time it was released but I find it very difficult to aim like that; I
guess I’ll get used to it if I persevere. Those games were designed to be hard!
So too was the original Shinobi, apparently. You can respawn as many times as
you like but it doesn’t help if you keep dying in the same place over and over
again! But they were what I needed at that point, which was some mindless fun.
Also I played a bit more of Orcs and Elves; I’m enjoying it
so far as the difficulty of the game is just about right for me. Also, as is
becoming the case, I’m finding a lot more fun in the games where it’s ok to
just pick it up and have a play, rather than immersing myself in a simulation.
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