Exploring Mountains of Abandonware: Four Freebies and One For Purchase
I've got loads of respect for true-blue PC gamers. Heck, two of my favorite people in the world (Gameosaurus Rex and Gamegnathus) still have high-end PCs and continue to partake in great PC gaming experiences.
Once upon a time, I had a machine that was on par with the consumer high-end. It was from 1994 to 1997. Ever since then, I've been below the curve and have generally put consoles and handhelds in higher esteem than my rotting PC(s).
But during those glory days, I played some fantastic games. And I'd like to use this opportunity to tell you about five in particular that, as far as I can tell, fall into the category of "abandonware," where the copyrights have either been voluntarily revoked or else have become so vague that it's safe to freely download them without any pain of conscience.
MENZOBERRANZAN
Released: 1994
Developer: DreamForge Intertainment
Publisher: SSI
link to download (google)
In an early episode of Jurassic Radio, I'm sure I brought up what I see as the holy trinity of old D&D RPGs. There were dozens of them, and they definitely varied in quality. But the three from DreamForge really left a huge impression on me. There were two titles in the Ravenloft universe: RAVENLOFT: STRAHD'S POSSESSION and RAVENLOFT: STONE PROPHET. Sandwiched between these two releases was a Forgotten Realms title: MENZOBERRANZAN.
All three games operate as a first-person real-time Action RPG, where you have a party and you click on the appropriate enemy in range over and over to have your party members (up to 4) attack. In Menzoberranzan, your direction of travel is quite different from the two Ravenloft games. You see, in Menzoberranzan, you see an opening cut scene fighting a dragon on a snow-covered mountain, and then the game starts at a small town on the surface. Your party (starting at just two people) is chased underground. Along the way you meet the ever-popular Drizzt Do'Urden and other characters who will join the party. And you travel down, down, down, (occassionally up), and finally to the Menzoberranzan, the "City of Spiders," a home of the Drow people (including Drizzt).
I think new players to this game would be surprised to see just how colorful the depths of the earth can be. I have fond memories of this game's graphics, primitive as they are.
Menzoberranzan offers multiple endings, all depending on your choices in the final hour(s) of the game in the underground city for which the game is titled. As you travel through the layers of the earth, you'll encounter many puzzles, difficult passages to navigate, and some very interesting characters. Like many PC games of this era, it can be buggy, and as far as I know it's never been patched (even by fans). The rule is to save often and always create new saves (a crash during a save overwrite leaves you with nothing).
Also, check out YouTube user Elanarae for some Let's Play videos of this game!
SHIVERS
Released: 1995
Developer/Publisher: Sierra
link to download (google)
I know we have at least one frequent reader who remembers this game as fondly as I do. Taking cues from games like MYST and THE 7TH GUEST, SHIVERS is a puzzle-solving point-and-click adventure. The setting is an abandoned museum where the museum's curator and two teens mysteriously vanished over a decade ago. You play the role of a curious teen who, alongside your friends, decide to break in to the old museum to see if you can solve the mystery. You get separated from your friends, and for the entirety of the game, you'll be unraveling the mystery and capturing evil spirits.
Yeah, that's right. You're not alone in this museum. Though most of this crazy museum is portrayed in-game as still images (which, I would argue, are still beautiful in their own right), there are about a dozen spirits from some ancient civilization that can be found in a few set locations throughout the museum, and they appear as these colorful, cartoony-animated 2D blobs (often with eyes and mouth). If you have your sound on, you can usually hear some strange noise associated with them. And that's important, because the true goal of the game is to find two pieces (top and bottom) to each sacred jar that used to hold these spirits. Once a jar is completed, holding it out and making contact with the corresponding spirit will seal the spirit. If you don't have the right jar out and you are approached by one of these spirits, you can actually lose health. Lose enough health and you die. Health bars aren't very common in P&Cs, which is part of this game's charm. The challenging puzzles, many of which are single-screen "game puzzle" affairs (anyone who remembers that accursed pinball machine knows what I'm talking about), is also a big attractor.
The final part of the game's charm is its powerful mix of factual cultural history, "conspiracy theory" history (example: aliens helped build ancient structures around the world including Egyptian pyramid and Stonehenge), and fiction written particularly for the game. There's plenty of audio and video interlaced into the game, but even just reading the text on the display panels next to a museum exhibit is quite interesting. The player will run into some crazy, creepy, and even downright terrifying areas of the museum (the "Man's Inhumanity To Man" exhibit always scared me).
I should also note that the soundtrack, by Guy Whitmore, was awesome. This game had great music.
HERETIC
Released: 1994
Developer: Raven Software
Publisher: id Software
link to download (google)
Though many gamers are quick to remember the sprawling levels and "hub zones" of HEXEN, many forget the original game from Raven Software that would lead to the creation of Hexen. That game was HERETIC. Based on the DOOM engine, Heretic took place in a dark medieval fantasy world. Its weapons were pretty much carbon copies of the Doom weaponry (in terms of effect) though they had a medieval style to them. An inventory system was added, the ability to look up and down was added (remember when you couldn't do that in Doom and would get angry?), and they even added the ability to fly.
Most FPS games are set in a time frame that is modern or futuristic, hence fitting the "shooter" in the genre name. But medieval/magic-based shooters are a horse of a different color, and to me, Heretic was the one that paved the way. The environments were awesome, the levels were scaled larger than those in Doom, and the boss fights were straight up crazy.
Both Heretic and Hexen would go on to have their own sequels, but the original Heretic has long been my favorite to return to. I know there's a huge community of fan-based levels for Doom (series) and Quake (series), but not so much for the Raven Software games (Heretic/Hexen). To me, that's fine. the original level design is enough to keep challenging me to this day.
THE ELDER SCROLLS: ARENA
Released: 1994
Developer/Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
link to download (Elder Scrolls official site)
I think during the early days of the Jurassic Radio podcast I talked about this game so much that it got "pantheon'd" for our top five / top three segments. And that was entirely my fault. To this day I can't stop talking about the game.
Why? I have no idea. The game was buggy as all get-out at the time of its release, and it remains buggy to this day (even with some patches applied). Bethesda made THE ELDER SCROLLS: ARENA (the first game in the long-running series which currently runs up to THE ELDER SCROLLS IV: OBLIVION) a free-to-download title from their own website in 2004. But it comes with a word of caution: paraphrased, they say the game is rudimentary and is also likely to crash on you.
Yet, I've gone back to this game once every 2 or 3 years, even though I'm not a huge Morrowind or Oblivion fan. Arena calls to me despite its super-ugly graphics and cheesy MIDI music, despite the stupid riddles and the frequent freezing/crashing. I guess I like the game because it was the first game of its time to be so thoroughly open, and as a result, so thoroughly exploitable.
The first time I learned I could create my own spells, some of which with dungeon-altering capabilities (remove walls, create stairwells, etc), my mind was blown. When a friend showed me how to cheat the spell system by designing an insanely powerful AoE spell that cost almost no mp, I was hooked. There would be no stopping my battle mage.
Robbing houses and palaces was also plenty of fun.
If you're willing to take a risk on a glitch-filled adventure with DOSbox and/or you want to see the foundation for what has become a defining experience in computer RPGs, get this game.
STONEKEEP
Released: 1995
Developer/Publisher: Interplay
link to purchase (good old games)
Well, I *thought* this game would have been abandoned, considering Interplay died ages ago. But it looks like the copyright holders actually got STONEKEEP listed on GOG. In digging up info, I also learned that Black Isle had been working on a sequel to this game until 2001 and then canceled the project, and that Alpine Studios intends to release a sequel for WiiWare later this year. I guess I didn't realize how well-loved and well-remembered this game was by the industry.
Anyway, this is another first-person real-time Action RPG. You control the disembodied soul of the protagonist, Drake, but instead of having free-roaming motion (like in the DreamForge games), all movement is tile-based. You walk square to square, defeating enemies, pressing buttons and pulling switches, and collecting loot. Your path takes you through a descent into deeper and deeper underground realms (I guess I have "a type" when it comes to these kinds of games; this is sounding strikingly similar to Menzoberranzan). Along the way, you must collect orbs representing the planets of our solar system, some of which have special magical effects that can help Drake.
(It's worth noting that two of the planets can be easily missed by skipping the Faerie Realm, a place whose entrance is part of a cryptic puzzle that also inconveniently contains a glitch. Patches and save states were released in the '90s for gamers, myself included, to gain access to the realm. If you move on without doing the Faerie Realm quests, you will reach a "point of no return" where you're at the last boss without all the planets and cannot win.)
The game had tons of voice acting (for its time), lots of fun and interesting characters, some cool FMV sequences, and it sticks out in my mind as one of the hardest PC RPGs I ever beat. I'm certainly interested in the WiiWare sequel.
The Jurassic Hour #1: Bad for Ya
Keen observers will notice that this podcast post has NO LOGO. That's because I HAVEN'T MADE ONE YET. It's a brand new show!
Well, kind of. We moved up our timetable on the two-week thing. Long story short: the new stuff starts today, and you don't have to do anything. If you're subscribed to the Jurassic Radio in any podcast aggregator, including iTunes, you will get The Jurassic Hour.
Here's how this works. Or how it will work, once we get our shit together.
In a few ways, it's the same deal as always. We open with what we've been playing, we move on to some sort of special topic, and we finish with the news and what's coming out. But in between each segment, GAMES! To lead off the first segment, we'll stage a three-way trivia contest between Benji, Gamegnathus and the Gameodactyl. As host, I moderate.
Between the first and second segments, those same three dudes square off in a video game challenge a la Nick Arcade. As host, I referee.
In between the second and third segments, the guys do a physical challenge, a la all these shows. Since I'm vain and fit, I might jump in for one of these sometime. The winner of the evening, based on points accrued throughout the three events, gets ... something. The loser rips a shot of something, or, in Puritan Pat's case, must do jumping jacks for one minute.
We've videotaped the video game and physical challenges; scroll up for the grisly results.
Cool, right? No? Let us know in the comments. (The answer, of course, is yes; dissenters are advised to wash their eyes with fire.)
Apologies for the background squeal in the second and third segments. We changed venues for this introductory episode to Ben and Rambo's apartment, which has, well, background noises. Swingin' place, I might add.
Intro music lifted from "Price is Right" theme song composer Robert Cobert. Other music from Yello, Gorillaz and Blondie.
PODCAST
(right-click to save, use player below, or get the show on iTunes here)
00:00 - 59:48 -- What we've been playing (FINAL FANTASY XIII, GOD OF WAR III, SHIREN THE WANDERER, DAWN OF WAR II: CHAOS RISING, METRO 2033)
ACT BREAK -- Yello, "Oh Yeah"
1:00:08 - 1:39:37 -- WINNING TIME: "Everything Bad is Good for You"
ACT BREAK -- Gorillaz vs. Blondie, "Feel Good Inc. vs. Atomic" (from DJ HERO)
1:40:07 - 1:52:49 -- The news, what's coming out
Let FFXIII be FFXIII
(first person to name that reference gets a hug)
I'm not sure I need to contribute anything about FINAL FANTASY XIII in print, given that I'm going to try to conscript Benji, who has finished it, to write a review. I expect we'll be discussing it on the podcast pretty exhaustively Sunday, and I'm only about halfway through, and the Gameodactyl has talked at y'all about it twice now.
I mean, I've spent all this time with GOD OF WAR III (wow) and COMMAND AND CONQUER 4 (weird) and the CHAOS RISING expansion to DAWN OF WAR II (awesome), and for diversity of coverage, I should be talking about one of those, right? Or at least playing something different, like RESONANCE OF FATE or METRO 2033 or something?
Naw, because I've got some strong feelings about FFXIII. But I want to spare you guys some of the redundancy, so we'll do it in Kotaku-style love/hate bullet points.
DIGGING:
- Battle-to-battle immediacy: For better or worse, Toriyama-san and company ruthlessly stripped out much of what makes a JRPG a JRPG. In the "better" column, I would file automatic post-battle healing and the dizzying speed at which your earnest retards do stuff while in combat. These are improvements Square Enix should keep.
- Abolishing MP while keeping magic relevant: Though it takes some of the mystique out of your casters' abilities, getting rid of magic points was a masterstroke. In FFXIII, everything hinges on "staggering" your foes, at which point they take much, much more damage. An enemy's stagger gauge is filled by "ravager" (mage) attacks, but it'll drop precipitously unless you're simultaneously pelting him with "commando" (fighter) attacks. It's a neat way to give players a reason to spec out a magician later in the game, when most Final Fantasy titles become about making all of your dudes super-strong, super-versatile super-fighters. Hell, Yuna was my tank by the (very, very) end of FINAL FANTASY X.
- Mostly lovable cast: With the exception of Hope — the bratty, girly product of a pretend broken home — the galoots you steer through FFXIII's corridors are a likable lot. In the first hour of the game, I thought I'd hate Snow, who rolls up the sleeves of his trenchcoat and is Cocoon's equivalent of an Ivy League cheerleader. But at hour 20, he's become my favorite Final Fantasy character since Dagger. Just a determined, sympathetic do-gooder who wants to help his friends. That he's the best-written of several speciously scripted characters helps his standing somewhat. I'm also down with Lightning, who's just hard-edged enough to be a badass. She kept punching Snow early on, which confused me, but it makes a certain sort of Final Fantasy sense now.
- You're asked to kill God, basically: We've talked about this theme on the podcast before, and it's hardly unique to FFXIII (XENOGEARS says "hi"). But any game that asks you to flip off the man in charge earns easy points with me.
- Looks awesome: I mean, really awesome. The game's Cybertronian eidolons are the most rewardingly flashy summons of the series, and almost every environment is drop-dead gorgeous.
NOT DIGGING:
- Buddy system: FFXIII has an in-game tutorial that teaches you how to use items. I'll summarize that lesson in five words: SELECT "ITEMS," USE "PHOENIX DOWN." But no, the game interrupts a battle to offer you a one-minute explanation of said feature. That's the ethos that guides the first 20 hours of the game. You can't select your party members, your level-building is capped, you mostly get only two characters at a time, you can't pick your dialogue, and you never, ever will stray from the beaten path. It's impossible. In FFXIII, you can't take a piss without somebody "offering" to undo your fly.
- All alone: For the first six or seven hours of the game, your five (later six) player-controlled characters are just about the only people you'll meet. Your villain is a nebulous geezer who occasionally issues some calamitous edict through Fal'cie Public Radio, but if you want to learn anything about his lieutenants or the soldiers dogging you down every lushly decorated corridor, you'll have to dig through the game's terrible "Datalog," which keeps track of every single enemy and plot development. (Related: What the hell is with the notification markers? Does the items menu really need my attention every time a bad guy drops a potion? Really?)
- Leveling malaise: My biggest complaint about FINAL FANTASY XII is the retrospectively awesome fact that any character can be anything. In FFXIII, each character initially gets a set of two or three specialties, but later, with enough grinding, anybody can be anything. MAKE UP YOUR MIND, GAME. Either my dudes have pre-determined classes, or they don't. Do not tease me with Hope's awesome boomerangs -- the only awesome thing about him -- and then take them away for the next two-dozen hours.
Long story short, I like, but it has some truly vexing issues. Real head-scratchers. But I'm on track to finish this one, and I can't say that of XII or FINAL FANTASY X-2 (which I loved but eventually became intimidated by, such is its breadth; same director, infinitely more customizable -- weird).
A hit, a rogue, and a book: an introspective look at my gaming habits
So, as you may have read if you've been following the posts on Gameosaurus, we took a break from our weekly podcast, and will soon be slowing down recordings. There were a number of reasons for it, but chief among them was this: I, the Gameodactyl, was awful at keeping up with our self-imposed schedule.
We planned on discussing a book, Steven Johnson's 2005 Everything Bad Is Good For You, on last week's podcast. The idea was actually mine. A friend of a friend suggested the book to me after I recounted an embarrassing story, when I got into a debate with a theology professor about the pros and cons of gaming in the spring of 2005. I was so psyched about the book that I ordered three copies and demanded that we discuss it on a recent podcast. And of course, the only guy to not read the book in time is yours truly.
The hit.
We will be discussing the book in further detail in our upcoming podcast, as all of us have now read it. It wasn't at all the book I expected it to be. The subtitle of the book suggests that popular culture makes us smarter, and for some reason, I was expecting it to also address how it makes us "better" in a more well-rounded sense. But no, the argument has everything to do with cognition and intelligence. Johnson addresses the "moral degradation" arguments, and actually does a half-decent job, even though he relegates that argument to only a mere ten (or less) sentences of the book.
I'll talk about this more on the podcast, but suffice it to say, the book was marvelously eye-opening. For years, I've been lying to myself about why I enjoy games. The determinist argument Johnson provides is too compelling to be false. In short, the "reward" system of the brain is the reason games are popular. The positive side effect is that they teach us how to think: pattern recognition, systems analysis, etc. But the reward system is what brings us back for more; it's much the same experience as food, sex, exercise (for habitual athletes, not noobsauce weaklings like myself), or drugs. The "seeking" function applies especially well.
More importantly, Johnson argues that the content is secondary, perhaps even tertiary, to the gaming experience. And here's where I've been lying to myself. I've enjoyed RPGs above all other genres for years, and I've told myself and it's primarily because RPGs were the text-heavy story-centric mammoths of gaming that I enjoyed them most. I appreciated the plots, the character development, etc. Story is what kept me coming back for more.
The rogue.
In truth, while some RPGs have had decent stories, none of them can compare to literary classics. Ever. They're different forms, and games simply cannot afford a strong story. I hate admitting that. but they're right. And the last two weeks of gaming prove it.
The two games at the top of my list to play right now are FINAL FANTASY XIII (duh) and SHIREN THE WANDERER (huh?!). Here's the really cute part. FFXIII has been out for about 9 days now, and I'm 2 hours into the game. Shiren, the rogue-like game with a challenge level rivaling DEMON'S SOULS (another Atlus publication), I've sunk nearly 50 hours into. I haven't told anyone until now. Granted, I've had it since the end of February, but that is still a ton of time to put into a game that is so short.
When you start a game on Shiren the Wanderer (a Wii-exclusive game and third part of a series that generally hasn't seen the light of day in North America), you can play on Easy or Normal. Easy gives you the rogue-lite option: when you die, all you lose are the things you found in that particular dungeon. It's a restart, but it's not a real loss. There are over 20 dungeons in the game's main plot, and none of them exceed 30 floors. Play on normal, and you get a true "rogue" experience. While you do retain experience points and levels, you will lose all items, save those you kept back in a storehouse. I chose to play on normal, and that's been what's killing my time.
I'm at the end of the game, and due to my own compulsive behaviors, I won't stop playing the game (or write the review for RPGFan.com) until I reach the ending. The other day, I built up fantastic equipment, with a lot of good fortune and skills that I've picked up while playing the game), that afforded me the opportunity to reach the final boss. If only I'd read a walkthrough to know that the final boss had two forms, and I should save all my big guns for the second form. I didn't come with enough defense or restoratives, and I died. Ridiculous sword and shield equipped on Shiren that took 8 hours to create? Gone.
So why do I go back? It's the whole reward-center thing. I know how to make that sword again, and with luck, I might even make something better this time around. I've learned the tricks, the exploits, the nuances of the system in this game, and I'm excited to conquer it. And while this game has a much stronger plot than almost any rogue-like in the world (including previous Shiren entries), in truth it's little more than a quirky re-telling of some Japanese folklore. If I actually was drawn to games for their story-telling, wouldn't I just throw Shiren out the window and get started on FFXIII?
You see, I started FFXIII, and while I am annoyed with some of the characters already (see: Hope), I am definitely interested in the sci-fi/dystopian plot. I'm definitely attracted to it. But the battle system? At least from the start, there was nothing to learn, nothing to master. Everyone agrees that game has a slow start. So hey, it doesn't have me hooked. But some poorly-selling rogue-like RPG on the Wii has me hooked? Madness. Except, according to Johnson, it makes perfect sense.
The book.
So that's where I stand. when Podcast-recording time comes, I hope to be done with Shiren and ready to get back into the game that's a best-seller due to strong branding and eye candy. I hope to thoroughly enjoy it, as my fellow G'saurs apparently have. But we'll see. In the meantime, I think I will now be approaching each game I play with a totally different outlook, and it's thanks to Johnson's book.
(Also, I really want to read Johnson's latest, The Invention of Air, which focuses on the points of agreement and tension in science and religion in the last few hundred years of the Western world. Has anyone read it? Does anyone have any other recommendations for reading?)
State of the site, end of the podcast?
(I was going to craft a new narrative for all of this, but I spent a lot of time making sure the following e-mail to the other guys was as truthful and diplomatic as possible. So, with a few edits, here is that document.)
To: Gameodactyl, Gamegnathus
CC: Benji, Gameratops
Re: Podcasto (Spanish for podcast)
New plan -- no podcast today, as (UNNAMED GAMEOSAUR) hasn't started the book nor played FFXIII much, and they're the only two things I really was planning on talking about. I want to discuss both of them at some serious length -- took two pages of notes on the book for discussion questions, etc.
So we'll catch up again next week. Unless either of you have something you'd really like to discuss this week, in which case I'm totally game.
One other thing, and as a foreword, I know I share responsibility for this:
Editing together the last five or six shows, it's become fairly clear that we're going through the motions. I really appreciate everybody's involvement and the enormous amount of time each of us obviously has sunken into this project, but if I'm pulling teeth and creating a hassle for you guys, I'd just as soon not do it. And if I'm creating a financial hardship for people by harassing them into buying things they otherwise wouldn't, thereby draining checking and savings accounts and pissing off spouses, well, I really don't want to be doing that, either.
I trace most of this back to the fact that a) we're still trying to do too much too often, and b) we really don't know who we're talking to. We DO know that we're not talking to many people. Even after Pat courageously pelted the entire FFXIII launch crowd with business cards Monday, this week marks our lowest podcast and Web traffic since the first week of February.
Whomp whomp.
So the stakes are pretty low every time we get together.
Here's my proposal: I'm writing two posts today -- one for FFXIII at the 13-hour mark, one for the state of the site. In the state of the site post, I put it to readers that we intend to make episode 48 our last WEEKLY show, as that would bring us to precisely one year since we started the podcast. And then we bang out five really solid episodes.
But that's with one caveat -- if our listenership of roughly 25 people can get our weekly audience to 50 by the last episode, we'll continue doing it weekly, setting audience benchmarks as appropriate.
If not, we'll keep the feed running, and I'll find reasons to record occasional pieces of audio.
The site will continue, of course, and you're all welcome to continue contributing. Starting sometime in April, I'm moving to the copy desk at work, which means I get a raise and 7½-hour days back. That's down from 11-ish, which means I'll have much more time to myself, and I won't be completely burned out by already having spent the entire day writing and lifting. And in September, I technically hit four years with the company, which means my salary jumps by about one-third. That allows for considerably more resources for things like recording and video capture equipment.
I'm trying to prod Alex into mocking up a new design for $200 or so. Something super minimalist. One fat column spanning about 800 px, completely for body text. At the top, the logo; one Gameosaurus twitter feed that anyone can contribute to, much the way Drunken Gamers does it (@DGRadio); an ABOUT US link, a link to back episodes of the podcast; and a search util. The rest is content, all the way to the bottom.
And at that point, it's just an attractive blog (hopefully) with some audio every now and then. No expectations, no reason to fuss or feel stressed. Ben's welcome to get in on it if he wants. I'll still edit for grammar, but not for content. I'll just disagree with him vehemently 
(I confess that I was a dick during that whole process, but that was when I was plagued by delusions of relative fame and blissfully unaware of how few people we were reaching.)
Rambo, I continue to pester you about playing co-op Dawn of War II with me. I'm available all night.
The first hour: "Final Fantasy XIII"
But first, some exposition.
Never in my life had I gone to a midnight release for a game, or a console. I'd done some movies (which turned out to suck: thanks for nothing, George Lucas!). So it was a very new experience for me.
While chillin' at the local mall, anxiously awaiting my copy of the game, I also heavily promoted this site. To any new readers who accepted a card from Patrick "The Gameodactyl" Gann, welcome aboard! There's a boatload of old podcasts to listen to if you'd like...
Anyway, I get my game (PS3 version, Blu-Ray ftw) in short order and head home. It's 12:30am EST, March 9th 2010. Most people who picked up the game are probably jamming away by this point. Me? I think "crap, I have work in the morning" and go to bed. What an anticlimactic feeling.
And when I get home from work? I teach piano lessons to some kids, get some writing done, tuck my own kids in bed, and ... wow, I sure am tired!
So it actually took me a solid 36 hours after the game's release to actually touch it. Pathetic.
Without further ado, enjoy my ramblomatic notes that I took during the first hour of FINAL FANTASY XIII. Watch for a neat little trick I pull to make a comment about today's highly cinematic RPGs. Not that I'm complaining: after all, I am a XENOSAGA fan.
Jurassic Radio #43: Suspension
Howdy! I hope at least some of you people are the ones the Gameodactyl confronted at a York County GameStop waiting in line early this week for FINAL FANTASY XIII. The three of us made and subsequently abandoned plans to hand out business cards at midnight launches to promote the site and the podcast, but Pat actually followed through. If you're new, welcome aboard.
NOW. LISTEN, SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES, RATE US THERE AND COMMENT HERE, DAMMIT.
In this week's show, the three of us get together in meat-space for the first time in a month to talk about how the Gameodactyl's nuts are recovering, whether SUPREME COMMANDER 2 and the Wii version of SHIREN THE WANDER are for babies, why CAVE STORY prime still rules and how BATTLEFIELD BAD COMPANY 2 turned out.
In Winning Time, we tackle the first few hours of METROID PRIME 3: CORRUPTION, which I've played before but which ranks so far my favorite Winning Time title in the history of our little show.
Plus, our personal PS3 downtime calamity stories, which is to say, Pat's. Neither Gamegnathus nor I turned on our PS3s during the #apocalyps3, but I was still furious about it.
With music from New Order and Ted Leo & the Pharmacists.
PODCAST
(right-click to save, use player below, or get the show on iTunes here)
Jurassic Radio #43: Suspension
00:00 - 36:48 -- What we've been playing
ACT BREAK -- New Order, "Age of Consent"
37:21 - 1:18:27 -- WINNING TIME: METROID PRIME 3: CORRUPTION
ACT BREAK -- Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, "The Stick"
1:26:11 - 1:44:48 -- The news, what's coming out
The Newest Oldies Round-Up: February '10
(This time with no images, because I think my clever writing trumps screen shots.)
February had one classic-ish game on XBLA, three good ones on VC, and a ridiculous load of PSOne Classics (only one of which is worth talking about).
Starting with the XBLA release, DARWINIA+ (released Feb. 11) is a repackaging of two games: DARWINIA and MULTIWINIA. We mentioned it on a recent episode of Jurassic Radio. The original Darwinia was released in 2005, so this really is a newer "oldie." But it's worth mentioning, if only because developer Introversion Software deserves the love for making such a strange hybrid of RTS and Tactical goodness. Darwinia+ was released a few months ago for PC on Steam, but now Xbox 360 owners can pick it up for 1200 MS points (that's $15).
Among the PSOne Classics, the one that's really gettin' me feeling nostalgic is GRANDIA. This classic RPG from Game Arts (the developers who also created the LUNAR franchise) deserves attention and accolade. Again, this was mentioned on a recent episode of Jurassic Radio. Even though the protagonist is an annoying kid, and the voice acting is all-around awful, the battle system, art, music, and sense of grandeur from the game's world all make it a worthwhile RPG. For $10? Yeah, it's a worthy download, right up there with FFVII and VIII. And it just came out a little over a week ago (Feb. 25). Go get!
Jurassic Radio #42: On the Aisle
When I'm late with the podcast, as I am this week, I like to give you guys a peek at my excuse, if only so you can judge how inadequate it is.
This week, I blew our airtight Tuesday deadline because I was pissed at Steam. I had pre-ordered BATTLEFIELD BAD COMPANY 2 and SUPREME COMMANDER 2, pre-loaded the latter and got out of work as soon as possible Monday night so I could play 'em the second they unlocked.
But Steam wasn't able to negotiate a midnight unlock with EA on BATTLEFIELD (presumably so EA's own online store could have a few hours of exclusivity), so that was pushed until 10 a.m. PDT Wednesday. And the SUPREME COMMANDER 2 unlock was a technical clusterfuck, failing to decrypt anyone's .exe for almost nine hours and locking me out of my bought-and-paid-for game for most of the day.
Making matters worse, a Valve employee suggested on a Steam forum that the cause could be a glitch with Steam's new beta UI. Getting impatient, I downloaded the install for the ugly, stable UI, but it couldn't roll back the beta. So I uninstalled Steam -- a process which, I realized too late, uninstalls every game you've downloaded through the service.
So I queued up 30 gigs of gaming, skulked off to work, came back on my lunch break and discovered that only two of my 11 games had downloaded and that neither of them were BATTLEFIELD or SUPCOM.
Fury. And all of this is to say nothing of Y2PS3, which, oh my God. The digital download train hit a cow or something Tuesday, and I got thrown the hell off. I want to take all my games and books and movies and go underground. Maybe store 'em in a bomb shelter alongside all those beans and peaches Viggo Mortensen and his kid were eating in "The Road."
I finally fixed everything by the time I went to bed, but of course -- OF COURSE -- EA's BATTLEFIELD servers are utterly broken. That's par for the course with DICE games, but for fuck's sake, I'd like to play my game, please.
Anyway, this week's show is awesome. It's a disservice to all involved to bury the lede so low, but I had to get that stuff off my chest.
My college roommate Alan and I kick things off by dishing some completely unnecessary Oscar talk.
The regular crew follows that segment with the lowdown on the Gameodactyl's testicles. Then, GRANDIA, CROSS EDGE, MARVEL ULTIMATE ALLIANCE 2 and SUPREME COMMANDER: FORGED ALLIANCE. Yeah, we're partying like it's 2007. Or 1997.
But I talk about HEAVY RAIN for, like two seconds, and we do a roundtable on the "Halo Legends" anime compilation DVD.
With music from Jimi Hendrix, Marty O'Donnell, Michael Salvatori, and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.
PODCAST
(right-click to save, use player below, or get the show on iTunes here)
Jurassic Radio #42: On the Aisle
00:00 - 57:38 -- Pete and Alan talk movies
ACT BREAK -- Jimi Hendrix "Third Stone from the Sun"
58:01 - 1:25:43 -- What we've been playing
ACT BREAK -- Marty O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori, "Ghosts of Reach"
1:26:11 - 1:44:48 -- WINNING TIME: "Halo Legends"
ACT BREAK -- Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, "Jump with Me, Baby"
1:45:19 - 2:18:56 -- The news, what's coming out