#iplayoldgames

[iplayoldgames]

Happy 9th Birthday

To The Retro Gamer. Not me, as a person, but this account. 

Nine years. Thanks for sticking around, everyone. 

Check out my birthday write-up from 5 years ago here. To be honest, I’m too lazy to write a new one, and that one is still accurate.

[iplayoldgames]

I finished Spec Ops: The Line for the first time. Really impacting story. The famous white phosphorous scene was incredible.

The Line was part of a trend around the time it came out (2012) of games that deceived the player into thinking their choices mattered, when they didn't. I remember it was a big thing at that time to critique making meaningful choices in games. 

It works -- I mean, The Line generally did a good job of convincing me that the choices I made were the "only way". When I used that white phosphorous mortar, I agreed with Captain Walker -- "it's us or them." I didn't even consider another possibility. They were just more bad guys to kill. I was thinking tactically, like, "only three of us, an army of them -- gotta use the mortar to take 'em out! Yeah, it's the only way!" When the game showed me the consequences of those actions, it opened my eyes to just how "one-track brain" we are with shooters.

I'm really glad I finally played it, even as depressing as it was. It was a good thing they had a talented writing team, because the gameplay alone would not have carried this game. Combat was a slog and unsatisfying (kind of the point), and checkpoints were sometimes extremely punishing. But it was worth a playthrough for how it made me think and feel.

[iplayoldgames]

I'm replaying Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and marveling at how great the game design is. For example, when you get to the Lower City on Taris, there are a few directions you can go. Some of those directions have hostile characters and will get you engaged in combat, and the other directions will require you to have skill in persuasion to get anything done, and failing that, at least give you more objectives to let you stall while you gain more experience.

My character is not specced for combat, but persuasion, so direct combat with multiple enemies is just going to get me killed. But going the other ways allows me to talk my way through things, and I think that's really cool you have clear control over how you progress through the game. Not a lot of games do that, especially today. Take Fallout 4, for example. If you don't have at least some skill in combat, you'll die pretty quick in the wastes. That's not a game you can just dump points into charisma and win by charming everyone, though admittedly it's a harsher world.

Any game with combat mechanics kind of requires you to have some skill in defending yourself if you want to survive, but KoTOR often gives the player choices in how they want to progress, whether they want to take the talking route or the killing route. Notice I didn't say "tackle a given situation", but make progress in the game. Like real life, there are some situations you just don't get the option to talk things out: the other person/ party just wants you dead. So, here you get a choice of specific paths that have different journeys, but the same outcome: you make progress towards the ending of the game.

[iplayoldgames]

Six seasons of Competitive Overwatch have delivered an intense experience that offers something more serious to those bored with Quick Play. However, the established ranking system could use improv…

I wrote a proposal for changes to Overwatch’s competitive mode! I’d appreciate if you could check it out and share! Thanks!

[iplayoldgames]

I beat Half-Life 2 again for the first time in about 10 years. The game has aged INCREDIBLY well. Unbelievably well. For a game that came out in 2004, it has better animation, lighting and textures…

I beat Half-Life 2 again for the first time in about 10 years. The game has aged INCREDIBLY well. Unbelievably well. For a game that came out in 2004, it has better animation, lighting and textures than a lot of games today. First person shooting and platforming feels just right. Physics-based puzzles are unique and feel like there isn’t always one, clear answer, and you won’t solve them the same way twice. There are some dull moments, parts that go on a little too long, and occasional instances where it’s unclear as to where the player is supposed to go next, and it can take you a little out of the experience. However, for the most part, HL2 still stands up as a masterpiece you must play before you die.

What’s really fascinating and amazing to me, is the fan-created content HL2 spawned that is sort of this bizarre legacy it has left behind. The Source engine was made with user generated content (UGC) in mind, but I think the users generated more content and WILDER content than Valve ever imagined. It started with just simple maps and mods, but Garry’s Mod changed everything when you could import any model made for the Source engine into a puppet playground. There are kids today who grew up watching GMod animated videos on YouTube with characters from the very serious video game Half-Life 2 doing very silly things, and that’s wild to me. And this was several years after the game’s release! Even today, people are still doing things with Source and HL2 content.

Everything from mods to games to obtuse film projects have been made using Source, and although the tools are quite old and many struggle to interface with current versions of Windows, they are still being used today to make art because of their accessibility. And I think that’s really fascinating, and makes Half-Life 2 one the most unique games in history, for its ability to tell a good story with quality assets, then make all of those assets available for others to make their own story.

The Source engine is a gift that keeps on giving, and while Half-Life 3 may not be a game we will get to play in the foreseeable future, Source will regardless forever be Valve’s greatest and most memorable contribution to mixed media storytelling and UGC.

[iplayoldgames]

After a long hiatus, my analysis series on Silent Hill 2 is BACK! This video covers a good portion of the hospital, and I make some general theories on the characters and story as a whole.

[iplayoldgames]

I tried out the RWBY game last night. Only complaints really are the movement system leaves something to be desired (lack of good animation transitions and there's that "ice skating effect" à la Fallout 3/ New Vegas/ Oblivion), and it needs a save system, since quitting the game at any point loses all progress (still Early Access, so understandable). Also still a lack of any real story or goals other than "run through the level and kill everything". There is dialogue as you go along, and there is some hint of a story, but I haven't gotten far enough yet to see how fleshed out that is currently. Also, the like two or three songs that play during gameplay are great, but get repetitive.

I played both the regular version and the combat revision beta. The regular was pretty fun, very satisfying combat. The revision was definitely more polished in a few areas, and I liked the counter system they borrowed from Assassin's Creed. However, the new way skills are handled is really sloppy. You can tell they're still just experimenting and testing the waters.

All that said, if you're a RWBY fan, check it out. They say it's going to get more expensive as they add updates, and the state it's in right now is pretty fun. The combat revision is different enough from the regular that I can tell they're putting hard work into improving the game, and it's only going to get better from here.

[iplayoldgames]

Happy 20th Anniversary, Resident Evil!

My Resident Evil collection for @v-jolt. Short and sweet. :) Really proud of my original PS1 long box copy of RE!

Not pictured: RE5 (X360), RE6 (PS3), RE: Revelations 2 (PC, Steam)

I’ve come a long way from the day I rented Code Veronica X on PS2 at Blockbuster when I was 11 years old. Claire Redfield has always been one of my favorite video game characters since then. I played RE2 on N64 after that, and that is still to this day one of my favorite games of all time. 

I fell so in love with the series after that, I even got a GameCube just for RE0, REmake and RE4, then went ahead and bought 2, 3 and CVX. To many, the GC was a Smash Bros/ Zelda/ First Party Nintendo machine. To me, the GC was my RE machine.

I remember the early days of Outbreak. Getting online and playing with a bunch of random people, no idea what I was doing. I also have the recent memories of playing with the lovely folks over at obsrv this past year, renewing my love for the Outbreak series and making new friends. 

I remember hooking up my light gun from Time Crisis 3 to play Dead Aim, and enjoying it despite the mixed reviews. I remember borrowing RE: Survivor from a friend in high school when I was sick, and I beat it twice in one day.

I’ve replayed almost every RE game I own (and some I don’t) easily dozens of times. I don’t know how many hours of my teenage years were spent playing RE, but it was a lot, and I loved every second.

Thanks for 20 years of Resident Evil, Capcom. We’ve had our ups and downs, but what series hasn’t? If things like the fantastic Revelations 2 are any indication, the series is still going strong, and I can’t wait to see where it goes next. Here’s to another 20!