I've been playing on my Xbox 360 every night I can. It's got some good games for it, and some bad ones, but I'm happy with what I own.
I saw someone post on a forum today about their 360 failing with the RROD, and loads of people piled in moaning about the high mortality rate of 360s, and how appalling it is that a piece of equipment should still routinely fail for so many people.
I had a few thoughts on it, and yes it is really shockingly bad how often these units fail. But worse than that, it's a big part of why I own one, and why I am playing with it so much.
I'm a person who sees no value in buying the newest console just to keep up with trends or keeping up with other players, and for a few years it was impossible to care even slightly about 360/PS3/wii, but I know that if I forget about the 360 now... it's not going to be like any other console where I can just buy the machine 5 years later and all the games cheap and play my little heart out, oh no. Every single 360 is going to be dead in 5 years. It's going to have been superceded by whatever Microsoft want and they always drop their old stuff as soon as possible (because it's poo). It's the same with their operating systems, their applications, everything - they drop all their old stuff and old support because the old stuff is bad, even when the current technology is worse (points at Vista, points at 360 hardware - there are older examples as well). So I have to buy one now and play it to death now if I'm ever going to play with it at all. Not only will the machines be dead but I bet all online stuff will die out too - all the servers will be shut down.
I bet the retro market in 360s is going to be roaring in 20 years - even though there are tons of the machines around now, they will all be dead by then. And everyone who owns one will be scared to play on it, or it'll be like vintage wines - you either sell them for a ton of money or you drink it all down - one hour and it's gone forever. And so is the £££ you spent on buying it.
The whole situation kind of disgusts me as a gamer and a person who loves their old faithful consoles and never stops playing games when they're old.
I'm having fun playing on the 360 right now, but it also saddens me that it's like a child with a terminal disease who doesn't really know it. It's going to be far more dead as a console than any other that I own, in 5 years. In 5 years I will still be able to play on my Atari 2600 but my Xbox 360 will be dead. It's terrible.
There's a cute website which sets up a blog for your Xbox 360, which actually just auto-generates posts based on activity on your gamertag. It also gives your Xbox 360 a bit of a personality based on how much you've been playing and what you've been doing, so it's all quite amusing. Mine is currently happy and randomly quotes dialogue from the game "Portal", and says things that aren't true about me (I'm really not the controller-throwing type!), but it's all in the name of cheap entertainment so I don't mind. If you want to read it, it is here:
tenshi alpha's Xbox 360 Blog
Who knows? Within a few weeks I might be back to normal, playing on my DS and PS2 and Megadrive, and watching anime... or I might still be Xboxing while I still can...
This weekend I'm going to play PS2 ports of "Bubble Symphony" and "Bubble Memories" (Bubble Bobble sequels) with my brother. He says that he looked it up and the last last boss in "Bubble Memories", after to go through the game once then go through on "super" mode, is a Skelmonsta with a Wave Motion Cannon! O_O ooh, wish us luck...! XD
Saturday, 30 August 2008
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
Thoughts on Xbox Live Arcade
General thoughts about Xbox Live Arcade.
In some ways I really like it, in other ways I really don't.
Things I like
I like that I can download game trailers and demos and trial versions onto my Xbox 360 hard drive for free.
I like that certain games available to buy are old games where buying the original version of the game for whatever platform would now cost far more than what they're asking, due to scarcity of the game (e.g. Triggerheart Exelica for Dreamcast costs about £60 for the Japanese import game on ebay, but is only 800 points = about £6.80 on XBLA... though changes are it doesn't have "story mode", and has HDTV support...)
I like that it queues things up for download, pauses the download when it needs to, and you can set it to carry on downloading while the rest of the console is switched off too (though my guess is that it uses about the same amount of power as being fully switched on).
I like the convenience of loading games from the hard drive, not having to look for discs.
Things I don't like
I don't like the way buying Microsoft points with a credit card leaves your card on the Xbox 360 by default (I mentioned this a few times in earlier posts).
I don't like the way that games are often advertised as the full game, just like the original, but they're often missing crucial parts of the game (e.g. "Story mode" in Soul Calibur and Triggerheart Exelica...)
I don't like separately priced "downloadable content" for games - the way that game publishers now charge you for most of a game when it's released, then you can buy more of the game (and avatars and wallpapers to use on XBLA) for Microsoft Points afterwards. "Beautiful Katamari" was especially terrible for this!
I don't like the way that the price is fixed for a game with Microsoft Points under XBLA and the price never comes down.
e.g. A normal game comes out on a console, the RRP is £50. After a week it's £40. After a month it's £30. After a year you'll find 2nd hand copies in the "4 for £20" section in your local high-street video-games shops, and about the same price on ebay.
That's my favourite time to buy games, when they're cheap as chips. When you have a game on XBLA, the price never drops. So you have a situation where supposedly budget releases of little downloadable games are more expensive than popular high-budget games like "Mass Effect" or "Bioshock" or "Blue Dragon" on the high street.
I bought two compilation disks from ebay of XBLA games - the one that comes with the "Arcade" version of the console, and one called "Live Unplugged". Buying them like this on disk, the games work out as about £2 each which is far closer to what they're worth.
Some examples of how contemporary price cuts compare to XBLA prices... You can buy "Doom" on XBLA for 400 points (about £3.40), or you can buy "Doom 3" for Xbox in any high-street videogames store in a "4 for £10" offer, which includes "Ultimate Doom" and "Doom 2" - for £2.50. Doom 3 was originally priced at about 20 times more than it is worth now, but now that game packaged with the original Doom as a bonus is cheaper than just Doom on its own on XBLA.
You need another game to get the most out of your "4 for £10" offer? I suggest "Midway Arcade Classics", which includes "Defender" (400 points), "Gauntlet" (400 points), Joust (400 points), Paperboy (400 points), Robotron: 2084 (400 points), Smash TV (400 points), and Root Beer Tapper (400 points). So... 2800 points, that's, oh... £23.80 for games you can buy on a compilation disk for £2.50 in shops.
The game applies to more XBLA games that are re-releases of old games - there's usually a cheaper compilation out or another remake that ends up being cheaper if you just wait patiently.
See how this all pans out? How it works against the way that high-street videogame pricing typically works, to the player's disadvantage? It feels like another method that a games distributor is using to keep prices artificially high, though I suppose it technically isn't. If XBLA games dropped in price the same way that normal games drop in price, I'd be far more inclined to buy games. I'd feel like it was a bargain, a good deal.
You can "beat" the system a little bit, by buying pre-paid Microsoft Points online from Amazon or whoever, as they sometimes undercut the RRP of those cards by a pound or two, but that's generally the best discount you can hope for.
I also don't like the way licensing works. If a friend is visiting you, and they want to play a game they bought on XBLA, they can download it onto the hard-drive of your Xbox 360, but will only have full game access on their own account - you can't play it with them unless you go to their house and play it on their Xbox 360. Or, you buy a copy. That's not very social.
I've also wanted to play some games multiplayer with a friend in my house, but it turns out that multiplayer is only supported on the game if my friend and I each play on our own Xbox 360s in our own houses, via the Internet through two Xbox Live Arcade Gold Membership accounts. Two people sitting next to each other in front of one console can't have fun playing the same game, oh no! That also makes for very un-social gaming! >_<
In some ways I really like it, in other ways I really don't.
Things I like
I like that I can download game trailers and demos and trial versions onto my Xbox 360 hard drive for free.
I like that certain games available to buy are old games where buying the original version of the game for whatever platform would now cost far more than what they're asking, due to scarcity of the game (e.g. Triggerheart Exelica for Dreamcast costs about £60 for the Japanese import game on ebay, but is only 800 points = about £6.80 on XBLA... though changes are it doesn't have "story mode", and has HDTV support...)
I like that it queues things up for download, pauses the download when it needs to, and you can set it to carry on downloading while the rest of the console is switched off too (though my guess is that it uses about the same amount of power as being fully switched on).
I like the convenience of loading games from the hard drive, not having to look for discs.
Things I don't like
I don't like the way buying Microsoft points with a credit card leaves your card on the Xbox 360 by default (I mentioned this a few times in earlier posts).
I don't like the way that games are often advertised as the full game, just like the original, but they're often missing crucial parts of the game (e.g. "Story mode" in Soul Calibur and Triggerheart Exelica...)
I don't like separately priced "downloadable content" for games - the way that game publishers now charge you for most of a game when it's released, then you can buy more of the game (and avatars and wallpapers to use on XBLA) for Microsoft Points afterwards. "Beautiful Katamari" was especially terrible for this!
I don't like the way that the price is fixed for a game with Microsoft Points under XBLA and the price never comes down.
e.g. A normal game comes out on a console, the RRP is £50. After a week it's £40. After a month it's £30. After a year you'll find 2nd hand copies in the "4 for £20" section in your local high-street video-games shops, and about the same price on ebay.
That's my favourite time to buy games, when they're cheap as chips. When you have a game on XBLA, the price never drops. So you have a situation where supposedly budget releases of little downloadable games are more expensive than popular high-budget games like "Mass Effect" or "Bioshock" or "Blue Dragon" on the high street.
I bought two compilation disks from ebay of XBLA games - the one that comes with the "Arcade" version of the console, and one called "Live Unplugged". Buying them like this on disk, the games work out as about £2 each which is far closer to what they're worth.
Some examples of how contemporary price cuts compare to XBLA prices... You can buy "Doom" on XBLA for 400 points (about £3.40), or you can buy "Doom 3" for Xbox in any high-street videogames store in a "4 for £10" offer, which includes "Ultimate Doom" and "Doom 2" - for £2.50. Doom 3 was originally priced at about 20 times more than it is worth now, but now that game packaged with the original Doom as a bonus is cheaper than just Doom on its own on XBLA.
You need another game to get the most out of your "4 for £10" offer? I suggest "Midway Arcade Classics", which includes "Defender" (400 points), "Gauntlet" (400 points), Joust (400 points), Paperboy (400 points), Robotron: 2084 (400 points), Smash TV (400 points), and Root Beer Tapper (400 points). So... 2800 points, that's, oh... £23.80 for games you can buy on a compilation disk for £2.50 in shops.
The game applies to more XBLA games that are re-releases of old games - there's usually a cheaper compilation out or another remake that ends up being cheaper if you just wait patiently.
See how this all pans out? How it works against the way that high-street videogame pricing typically works, to the player's disadvantage? It feels like another method that a games distributor is using to keep prices artificially high, though I suppose it technically isn't. If XBLA games dropped in price the same way that normal games drop in price, I'd be far more inclined to buy games. I'd feel like it was a bargain, a good deal.
You can "beat" the system a little bit, by buying pre-paid Microsoft Points online from Amazon or whoever, as they sometimes undercut the RRP of those cards by a pound or two, but that's generally the best discount you can hope for.
I also don't like the way licensing works. If a friend is visiting you, and they want to play a game they bought on XBLA, they can download it onto the hard-drive of your Xbox 360, but will only have full game access on their own account - you can't play it with them unless you go to their house and play it on their Xbox 360. Or, you buy a copy. That's not very social.
I've also wanted to play some games multiplayer with a friend in my house, but it turns out that multiplayer is only supported on the game if my friend and I each play on our own Xbox 360s in our own houses, via the Internet through two Xbox Live Arcade Gold Membership accounts. Two people sitting next to each other in front of one console can't have fun playing the same game, oh no! That also makes for very un-social gaming! >_<
Monday, 11 August 2008
Braid (Xbox Live Arcade game)
I got my Xbox 360 back from repair last Thursday and have put it to use. ^_^
Braid is the new big thing on Xbox Live Arcade, so I downloaded the trial and tried it out. Here are my thoughts.
Braid is a 2D platform / puzzle game with nifty gameplay elements, nice backgrounds, and nice music. I don't want to play any more of it past the trial game.
Back in the days of the Great Giana Sisters, Nintendo would've sued the pants off of the makers of this game for making a profit out of blatant copyright infringement. There are a ton of allusions to Super Mario Bros all over the place. You go through levels jumping on the heads of your enemies, on a quest for your princess, meeting a dinosaur (presumably to be like Yoshi but it looks more like Barney The Dinosaur) at the castle in each level. I guess these days you call it "a tribute" rather than "theft" though.
The effect of using these Super Mario Bros elements is mainly that I pine for the simple cheerfulness and happiness of the Mushroom Kingdom, as I read through the annoyingly self-serving story laid out in various diaries you get to read before starting each world. It seems to detail a romantic relationship that went horribly wrong. Worse than just that, from the way it's written I can picture a guy using this game to try to get back together with a girl who's dumped him. And, well, as it's all of a personal nature, the end result is that it just makes me think "the author of this game must be a real jerk. If this story applies to his real life, it's wrong to use a game as the platform for your lamentation, and I can tell he still can't quite see how unattractive he is (and was). Even when he thinks he's been a loser, you can tell he still feels something else - it's disgenuine on a level that even the writer doesn't see. He deserves to be dumped by the princess. Well and truly. She's better off with Bowser. Even if he's all spiky and breathes fire.".
The game's story is its main downfall, for me. If the game has all the text in some language I don't understand, it would have been a great game. I'd be raving about it. I would probably have bought it.
The main character looks like a chibi Jonathan Ross, there is a nice rewind button which is really quite cool. No need for extra lives, and it forms part of the gameplay as well. The music is quite nice. The backgrounds are quite nice. 2D platform / puzzle games are good.
But I really hate the main character from those bits of text, so I don't want to help him, I would actually rather keep him away from the "princess" (that's by far the happiest ending I can picture for the story), and I don't want to put my money in the hands of the person who made the game to make him think like he did the right thing. I really really really dislike him.
I can take all sorts of bad storylines in games, or no real storyline at all, but... not this. This is just horrible and I feel bad playing it because of that. He should not be allowed to rewind himself back into that girl's life. He made his mistakes, that's it. Final. Done. No going back. That's how it should be. He should learn from it and move forwards, a better person. I don't want to be the person this game wants me to role-play as.
I also think Jade Empire for the same price on Xbox Live Arcade is better value. There's no way this game is worth three Space Giraffes.
Since playing the demo, I've found that the game gets all sorts of critical acclaim, first an award from innvations in game design, then good reviews for the game. The maker, however, does seem to be as much of a jerk as his script would imply. It's not just that he's using his game (which would otherwise be great) as a soapbox for his old relationship problems, but also... I get the impression that he's really proud of what he's done, thinks he's great, and that his work is higher art than, say, Super Mario Bros because of his tackling of adult relationship issues, but in reality, it's worse than reading a 14 year old's whining on social networking site.
Braid is the new big thing on Xbox Live Arcade, so I downloaded the trial and tried it out. Here are my thoughts.
Braid is a 2D platform / puzzle game with nifty gameplay elements, nice backgrounds, and nice music. I don't want to play any more of it past the trial game.
Back in the days of the Great Giana Sisters, Nintendo would've sued the pants off of the makers of this game for making a profit out of blatant copyright infringement. There are a ton of allusions to Super Mario Bros all over the place. You go through levels jumping on the heads of your enemies, on a quest for your princess, meeting a dinosaur (presumably to be like Yoshi but it looks more like Barney The Dinosaur) at the castle in each level. I guess these days you call it "a tribute" rather than "theft" though.
The effect of using these Super Mario Bros elements is mainly that I pine for the simple cheerfulness and happiness of the Mushroom Kingdom, as I read through the annoyingly self-serving story laid out in various diaries you get to read before starting each world. It seems to detail a romantic relationship that went horribly wrong. Worse than just that, from the way it's written I can picture a guy using this game to try to get back together with a girl who's dumped him. And, well, as it's all of a personal nature, the end result is that it just makes me think "the author of this game must be a real jerk. If this story applies to his real life, it's wrong to use a game as the platform for your lamentation, and I can tell he still can't quite see how unattractive he is (and was). Even when he thinks he's been a loser, you can tell he still feels something else - it's disgenuine on a level that even the writer doesn't see. He deserves to be dumped by the princess. Well and truly. She's better off with Bowser. Even if he's all spiky and breathes fire.".
The game's story is its main downfall, for me. If the game has all the text in some language I don't understand, it would have been a great game. I'd be raving about it. I would probably have bought it.
The main character looks like a chibi Jonathan Ross, there is a nice rewind button which is really quite cool. No need for extra lives, and it forms part of the gameplay as well. The music is quite nice. The backgrounds are quite nice. 2D platform / puzzle games are good.
But I really hate the main character from those bits of text, so I don't want to help him, I would actually rather keep him away from the "princess" (that's by far the happiest ending I can picture for the story), and I don't want to put my money in the hands of the person who made the game to make him think like he did the right thing. I really really really dislike him.
I can take all sorts of bad storylines in games, or no real storyline at all, but... not this. This is just horrible and I feel bad playing it because of that. He should not be allowed to rewind himself back into that girl's life. He made his mistakes, that's it. Final. Done. No going back. That's how it should be. He should learn from it and move forwards, a better person. I don't want to be the person this game wants me to role-play as.
I also think Jade Empire for the same price on Xbox Live Arcade is better value. There's no way this game is worth three Space Giraffes.
Since playing the demo, I've found that the game gets all sorts of critical acclaim, first an award from innvations in game design, then good reviews for the game. The maker, however, does seem to be as much of a jerk as his script would imply. It's not just that he's using his game (which would otherwise be great) as a soapbox for his old relationship problems, but also... I get the impression that he's really proud of what he's done, thinks he's great, and that his work is higher art than, say, Super Mario Bros because of his tackling of adult relationship issues, but in reality, it's worse than reading a 14 year old's whining on social networking site.
Tuesday, 5 August 2008
CD Japan Magazine Subscription special offer
CD Japan have a special offer on at the moment - a 500 yen coupon towards any of their magazine subscriptions!
Follow this link for details and to get your coupon!
They're valid until the 31st of August 2008. It's an overall discount, not off each magazine, but a money-off coupon is still money-off! ^_^ I'm taking out a subscription to Voice Newtype, as I haven't seen that magazine for sale anywhere for several years now. (I used to buy individual issues from Anime Jungle) ^_^
NOTE: On the page advertising Voice Newtype, the table of shipping costs shown on the site appears to conflict with the figures that come out of the shipping calculator during the checkout process. Despite what the page says SAL is much cheaper - there's a bit of a wait on each magazine, but otherwise you'll end up paying more than the cost of the magazine in shipping for each issue!
Follow this link for details and to get your coupon!
They're valid until the 31st of August 2008. It's an overall discount, not off each magazine, but a money-off coupon is still money-off! ^_^ I'm taking out a subscription to Voice Newtype, as I haven't seen that magazine for sale anywhere for several years now. (I used to buy individual issues from Anime Jungle) ^_^
NOTE: On the page advertising Voice Newtype, the table of shipping costs shown on the site appears to conflict with the figures that come out of the shipping calculator during the checkout process. Despite what the page says SAL is much cheaper - there's a bit of a wait on each magazine, but otherwise you'll end up paying more than the cost of the magazine in shipping for each issue!
Friday, 1 August 2008
Infinite Undiscovery preorders
A small price war seems to have broken out for the European release of the upcoming tri-Ace RPG for Xbox 360 (which will be published by Square Enix). It's listed at about £15 below RRP - that's a few pennies under £30 with free shipping - on both Play.com and Amazon UK. It's misspelled on Amazon, which probably won't help them lure customers!
Play
Amazon
There's something about RPGs on this generation of home consoles, though... they seem to drop in price a lot faster than in previous generations, and a lot faster than on handheld consoles. So it might be worth waiting it out and seeing how much it goes for about a month after release - it might be even less than this preorder price!
Play
Amazon
There's something about RPGs on this generation of home consoles, though... they seem to drop in price a lot faster than in previous generations, and a lot faster than on handheld consoles. So it might be worth waiting it out and seeing how much it goes for about a month after release - it might be even less than this preorder price!
Wednesday, 30 July 2008
Fatal Labyrinth
I started a game of FATAL LABYRINTH on megadrive yesterday. Popped the cartridge in, fought my way through all 30 levels of the dungeon (some levels repeated as I fell into a few pits) and defeated the final boss. Watched the end credits roll. ^_^
I first played this game about a decade ago, and never got very far with it. I kept dying! This week, I decided to buy myself a copy on ebay, started a game and didn't die once! I guess I must be luckier these days than I used to be. Or I have more patience. Or something.
Ah, even though it's easy by the standards of other roguelikes, it feels good to have finished a game that just kept killing me over and over again in the past. That doesn't have any save points or "password" system. That makes you eat to stay alive but the food items (which you can't carry round with you - you have to eat them when you pick them up) may be of any size and if you eat too much you die. Where enemies at the end of the game take anything from about 6 to 99 off your health with each hit and at maximum level you have under 800 health total and have run out of all the potions you had... yeah, I feel like luck was on my side...
Maybe I should attempt Sword Of Fargoal again... I've never been able to finish that either...
I first played this game about a decade ago, and never got very far with it. I kept dying! This week, I decided to buy myself a copy on ebay, started a game and didn't die once! I guess I must be luckier these days than I used to be. Or I have more patience. Or something.
Ah, even though it's easy by the standards of other roguelikes, it feels good to have finished a game that just kept killing me over and over again in the past. That doesn't have any save points or "password" system. That makes you eat to stay alive but the food items (which you can't carry round with you - you have to eat them when you pick them up) may be of any size and if you eat too much you die. Where enemies at the end of the game take anything from about 6 to 99 off your health with each hit and at maximum level you have under 800 health total and have run out of all the potions you had... yeah, I feel like luck was on my side...
Maybe I should attempt Sword Of Fargoal again... I've never been able to finish that either...
Rollercoaster Tycoon pinball and Dragon's Fury
Here's a game that's even less suited to being made into an arcade machine than Silent Hill. It's Rollercoaster Tycoon the pinball table.
Now, I like pinball. There are fewer and fewer pinball tables around in arcades and pubs as each year passes, so every time I see a table I haven't seen before, and the cost to play is about 50p, I'll give it a go.
However... I don't know whether it was due to how the table was set up, maybe the angle it was being played at was wrong... but this table wasn't much fun at all. It was slow - both the ball and the flippers. There was a voice to tell you what to do, which ramps to aim for etc, but it wasn't immediately obvious which features it was referring to each time. I was lucky enough to get a "Match" and a free credit, but it still wasn't enough to make me really like the machine enough to put in more money.
--
This week I played a copy of "Dragon's Fury" for Megadrive. I play a few pinball videogames as it's quite hard to find tables around anymore - mostly on handheld consoles - Pokemon Pinball games, Super Robot pinball and Metroid Prime Pinball. Super Mario Pinball was fun too and is the only videogame pinball I'd really class as 3D pinball - all the others are really 2D pinball with emulated ramps and things. Most video pinball games are terrible, though. The only good PC or console pinball game I've played is Epic Pinball and that was a very long time ago now - I played it on a 486/66.
Well, I guess the one that comes free with Windows isn't that bad, but it feels like the angles are preordained by the timing at which the ball strikes each thing on the table, or something like that, rather than being calculated using maths and physics - it's very old-style Microsoft; you can only play this game the way we say it should be played, travelling the paths which we think the ball should take! There is no way to hit the ball at an angle which we have not accounted for!
So, "Dragon's Fury", which came with the Megadrive when I bought it second hand ages ago but I never started it up. It said on the box "The Best 3D Pinball Game In The World", to which I felt extremely skeptical, but no, it's actually really good - much better than this "real" pinball table, renewing my enthusiasm for pinball. ^_^ I like the style of the graphics, I like the table and the bonus stages, I like the way it has most of the winning elements of modern video pinball games yet it predates most of them. My only wish is that there would be some kind of multiball function in there.
Video pinball is certainly different from "real" pinball, and so gameplay elements tend to be very different. Video pinball games tend to be much easier to give the player a longer game, as we've already taken their money before they start up the game. There's no benefit to the developer in making the player use more "credits". Replay value is not just in getting a higher score (although they always have a high score table) - modern tables and video pinball games both tend to give you short "missions" to complete then you can defeat the final mission and win the game, but for video pinball the final mission is likely to take the form of a "boss" character for you to hit repeatedly with your ball in the right spots or at the right time. With some video pinball games - like Dragon's Fury, Kirby's Pinball, Super Mario Pinball and Metroid Prime Pinball, enemies wander around each stage as targets. I also really like the video pinball games that let you collect things as you play - the Pokemon Pinball games and Super Robot Pinball being my favourites that allow you to do that. That really adds something substantial to do as replay value.
I like some elements of video pinball an awful lot, but as I said, only a handful of video pinball games are really good. I'm always happy to try out a table I've never played before, even though the same is true and lots of real pinball tables aren't very good either... ^_^;;
Now, I like pinball. There are fewer and fewer pinball tables around in arcades and pubs as each year passes, so every time I see a table I haven't seen before, and the cost to play is about 50p, I'll give it a go.
However... I don't know whether it was due to how the table was set up, maybe the angle it was being played at was wrong... but this table wasn't much fun at all. It was slow - both the ball and the flippers. There was a voice to tell you what to do, which ramps to aim for etc, but it wasn't immediately obvious which features it was referring to each time. I was lucky enough to get a "Match" and a free credit, but it still wasn't enough to make me really like the machine enough to put in more money.
--
This week I played a copy of "Dragon's Fury" for Megadrive. I play a few pinball videogames as it's quite hard to find tables around anymore - mostly on handheld consoles - Pokemon Pinball games, Super Robot pinball and Metroid Prime Pinball. Super Mario Pinball was fun too and is the only videogame pinball I'd really class as 3D pinball - all the others are really 2D pinball with emulated ramps and things. Most video pinball games are terrible, though. The only good PC or console pinball game I've played is Epic Pinball and that was a very long time ago now - I played it on a 486/66.
Well, I guess the one that comes free with Windows isn't that bad, but it feels like the angles are preordained by the timing at which the ball strikes each thing on the table, or something like that, rather than being calculated using maths and physics - it's very old-style Microsoft; you can only play this game the way we say it should be played, travelling the paths which we think the ball should take! There is no way to hit the ball at an angle which we have not accounted for!
So, "Dragon's Fury", which came with the Megadrive when I bought it second hand ages ago but I never started it up. It said on the box "The Best 3D Pinball Game In The World", to which I felt extremely skeptical, but no, it's actually really good - much better than this "real" pinball table, renewing my enthusiasm for pinball. ^_^ I like the style of the graphics, I like the table and the bonus stages, I like the way it has most of the winning elements of modern video pinball games yet it predates most of them. My only wish is that there would be some kind of multiball function in there.
Video pinball is certainly different from "real" pinball, and so gameplay elements tend to be very different. Video pinball games tend to be much easier to give the player a longer game, as we've already taken their money before they start up the game. There's no benefit to the developer in making the player use more "credits". Replay value is not just in getting a higher score (although they always have a high score table) - modern tables and video pinball games both tend to give you short "missions" to complete then you can defeat the final mission and win the game, but for video pinball the final mission is likely to take the form of a "boss" character for you to hit repeatedly with your ball in the right spots or at the right time. With some video pinball games - like Dragon's Fury, Kirby's Pinball, Super Mario Pinball and Metroid Prime Pinball, enemies wander around each stage as targets. I also really like the video pinball games that let you collect things as you play - the Pokemon Pinball games and Super Robot Pinball being my favourites that allow you to do that. That really adds something substantial to do as replay value.
I like some elements of video pinball an awful lot, but as I said, only a handful of video pinball games are really good. I'm always happy to try out a table I've never played before, even though the same is true and lots of real pinball tables aren't very good either... ^_^;;
Silent Hill The Arcade
While I was on holiday last week, I saw a machine I'd never seen before (so that probably means it's at least a year old already, hahaha). Silent Hill The Arcade.
Now, the first Silent Hill game for PS1 is one game I just can't play because I find it too scary. I gave up somewhere that must actually be fairly near the start in real terms - running around in the fog looking for a little girl, armed with barely anything... dying so often... it's partly the poor visibility making me peer closer, partly the alarming visuals when something does come along, partly the fact I feel utterly powerless, partly the feeling of being in an unknown place, partly the very small amount of sound used... but on top of that there must be some craftsmanship that makes the atmosphere just that little bit more terrifying than every other game I've played. The graphics are so dated now, I tried to convince myself "it's just some red pixels on screen! It's really blocky! They're just squares, come on, that can't really be scary!", but that didn't work. My imagination made it scarier than anything I could see.
The later games... I haven't tried. I just don't feel right playing a later game in a series where I couldn't play the first.
But I saw this machine and decided that I should give it a go, since it seemed the newest machine there and was a strange franchise to convert into an arcade machine.
It's a lightgun game. You put your money in, and you're in Silent Hill, it's very foggy and zombies and dogs etc come towards you so you shoot them. It's on rails so you aren't exploring, so there's no fear factor associated with peering closely at the environment to see where to head next. You're probably playing this while standing in a noisy arcade and besides, the game provides noisy voiceovers (with bad acting) from NPCs shouting at you all the time so there's no atmospheric silence to scare you. You have unlimited bullets, shoot offscreen to reload - same as any modern lightgun game, and there's nothing you can't kill by shooting it a few times, so there's no feeling of defenselessness. Graphically, everything seems rather plastic and harmless.
It's not in the slightest bit scary. It's more "House Of The Dead" than Silent Hill. Except that... it's slow. Really slow. I think someone must have thought slow = atmospheric? I don't know. I spent a lot of time waiting around for enemies to turn up.
Overall, it's not very good. The scariest thing about it is that the tacky obviously-cut-to-look-ragged cloth surrounding the cabinet is harbouring some disease you might catch. The second scariest thing is that this is what happened to the Silent Hill franchise. As a lightgun game it's fairly dreary. If it ever heads for a home console... well, I paid £1 for my go on this, and that's enough for me. I'd say that ought to be a price guide for what the game is worth to a player.
(I know, I would not normally judge a game by 10 minutes of gameplay, but that's all I was prepared to put into the machine, so that's all the attention it gets from me)
Now, the first Silent Hill game for PS1 is one game I just can't play because I find it too scary. I gave up somewhere that must actually be fairly near the start in real terms - running around in the fog looking for a little girl, armed with barely anything... dying so often... it's partly the poor visibility making me peer closer, partly the alarming visuals when something does come along, partly the fact I feel utterly powerless, partly the feeling of being in an unknown place, partly the very small amount of sound used... but on top of that there must be some craftsmanship that makes the atmosphere just that little bit more terrifying than every other game I've played. The graphics are so dated now, I tried to convince myself "it's just some red pixels on screen! It's really blocky! They're just squares, come on, that can't really be scary!", but that didn't work. My imagination made it scarier than anything I could see.
The later games... I haven't tried. I just don't feel right playing a later game in a series where I couldn't play the first.
But I saw this machine and decided that I should give it a go, since it seemed the newest machine there and was a strange franchise to convert into an arcade machine.
It's a lightgun game. You put your money in, and you're in Silent Hill, it's very foggy and zombies and dogs etc come towards you so you shoot them. It's on rails so you aren't exploring, so there's no fear factor associated with peering closely at the environment to see where to head next. You're probably playing this while standing in a noisy arcade and besides, the game provides noisy voiceovers (with bad acting) from NPCs shouting at you all the time so there's no atmospheric silence to scare you. You have unlimited bullets, shoot offscreen to reload - same as any modern lightgun game, and there's nothing you can't kill by shooting it a few times, so there's no feeling of defenselessness. Graphically, everything seems rather plastic and harmless.
It's not in the slightest bit scary. It's more "House Of The Dead" than Silent Hill. Except that... it's slow. Really slow. I think someone must have thought slow = atmospheric? I don't know. I spent a lot of time waiting around for enemies to turn up.
Overall, it's not very good. The scariest thing about it is that the tacky obviously-cut-to-look-ragged cloth surrounding the cabinet is harbouring some disease you might catch. The second scariest thing is that this is what happened to the Silent Hill franchise. As a lightgun game it's fairly dreary. If it ever heads for a home console... well, I paid £1 for my go on this, and that's enough for me. I'd say that ought to be a price guide for what the game is worth to a player.
(I know, I would not normally judge a game by 10 minutes of gameplay, but that's all I was prepared to put into the machine, so that's all the attention it gets from me)
Sunday, 27 July 2008
Shojo Kakumei Utena Complete CD Box (Ltd Ed)
I just noticed there's a limited release CD box set of Utena soundtracks coming out.
Catalog No.: KICA-920
Format: CD
Number of discs (or other units): 10
Release Date: 2008/08/27
Price: 12000yen (12600yen Tax incl.)
Item weight: 840 g
As far as I can see, it contains every soundtrack and has a bonus disk of house remixes, it comes in a nice display box, with a 100 page booklet. Well, I could be wrong about that because that's according to Neowing when roughly auto-translated by Rikaichan. Perhaps if you can read Japanese, the official website will be more accurate and helpful.
The music to Utena is really really great. Most of the music is by Mitsumune Shinkichi - some peaceful, some experimental and jazzy, the big choral battle themes for duels by J.A.Seazer - which are really the high points of the soundtracks for me - there hasn't been much like those songs before or since, and the opening theme sung by Okui Masami. All fitting really well within the series, where it wants to be peaceful, where it wants to be contemplative, where it wants to be weird and experimental, etc. I highly recommend this collection. Most of the original releases of the CDs are out of print now.
I need to look through my collection to find out whether it would be worth me picking this up, or I own most of it anyway (I'm not too bothered about house remixes).
Preorder at CD Japan: Shojo Kakumei Utena Complete CD Box [Limited Release], or if you prefer - preorder from Play Asia who might be a little more expensive for the item but cheaper on shipping... but I would trust CD Japan far more for a preorder, as I've known people disappointed on launch day with Play Asia in the past.
(If you're wondering, yeah I'd collect commission if you click through on either link, and I'll collect less from CD Japan if you opt for that but still recommend them the highest for preorders. Play Asia are great if the product is in stock but sometimes don't meet the demand of their popular preorders.)
Utena is also being rereleased on remastered Japanese region 2 DVDs, at the end of September, but it costs 30000 yen for the first DVD box only (24 episodes of 39) so I think the full set will cost more than a car...
Catalog No.: KICA-920
Format: CD
Number of discs (or other units): 10
Release Date: 2008/08/27
Price: 12000yen (12600yen Tax incl.)
Item weight: 840 g
As far as I can see, it contains every soundtrack and has a bonus disk of house remixes, it comes in a nice display box, with a 100 page booklet. Well, I could be wrong about that because that's according to Neowing when roughly auto-translated by Rikaichan. Perhaps if you can read Japanese, the official website will be more accurate and helpful.
The music to Utena is really really great. Most of the music is by Mitsumune Shinkichi - some peaceful, some experimental and jazzy, the big choral battle themes for duels by J.A.Seazer - which are really the high points of the soundtracks for me - there hasn't been much like those songs before or since, and the opening theme sung by Okui Masami. All fitting really well within the series, where it wants to be peaceful, where it wants to be contemplative, where it wants to be weird and experimental, etc. I highly recommend this collection. Most of the original releases of the CDs are out of print now.
I need to look through my collection to find out whether it would be worth me picking this up, or I own most of it anyway (I'm not too bothered about house remixes).
Preorder at CD Japan: Shojo Kakumei Utena Complete CD Box [Limited Release], or if you prefer - preorder from Play Asia who might be a little more expensive for the item but cheaper on shipping... but I would trust CD Japan far more for a preorder, as I've known people disappointed on launch day with Play Asia in the past.
(If you're wondering, yeah I'd collect commission if you click through on either link, and I'll collect less from CD Japan if you opt for that but still recommend them the highest for preorders. Play Asia are great if the product is in stock but sometimes don't meet the demand of their popular preorders.)
Utena is also being rereleased on remastered Japanese region 2 DVDs, at the end of September, but it costs 30000 yen for the first DVD box only (24 episodes of 39) so I think the full set will cost more than a car...
My new Xbox 360 (4)
I've owned my Xbox 360 since the 2nd of this month, including one week when I've been away on holiday and haven't touched it, and already... I've been on the phone to Microsoft support twice today to arrange repairs under warranty. I'm quite disappointed - I didn't even get to see the famous "Red Ring Of Death". What's happened is that the console refuses to read games or DVDs. It gave me an error message last night - a disc read error, asking me to open the tray and remove any dust... so I opened the tray, took a look at the disc which was absolutely immaculate, pristine, brand new and super nice and shiny - not a speck of dust. I shrugged and put the disc back into the tray and got on with my game. It was a compilation disc of games, so I guess it didn't need to read very much, so I didn't have any problems for hours until I stopped playing.
After that, it wouldn't read any discs. I put in a disc, it says "reading" .... and then instead of the name of the game, it says "open tray". It doesn't recognise discs. I tried a whole pile of different games, nothing would work.
So I went to bed, and in the morning tried to ring the support line. They're only open 9am to 5pm so I spent some time jotting down the serial number ready. When I got through, I was through to a woman with an Indian accent. I have a cold so I suppose I must have been hard to understand. I ended up repeating myself an awful lot, and the line kept cutting out and beeping so she was hard to understand, too.
We went through all sorts of things, I explained the problem a few times, told her what I could see... registered the console with the serial number... for some reason she kept asking me if the time and date were right on the console - which are automatically updated when it's connected to the internet, but the internal battery is dead so the clock is wrong otherwise - went through the menu to "console settings" -> "startup" -> "disc" but now it won't let me change whether to start on the dashboard or DVD, it just goes backwards to the previous page on the menu. (?)
At her request I tried a DVD and an audio CD - the DVD failed, but the CD works (it even grabbed the track listing which quite impressed me, since it was an import Utena soundtrack). She asked me if the console was too hot. I said yes, it's hot but how hot is too hot? She asked if it was too hot. I said it's hot, you could use it as a hand-dryer. She asked me if there was ventilation, I said it's sitting there on its own, nowhere near anything else, and that it's a smokeless environment, there shouldn't be a problem with the air. She said maybe I should switch it off and let it cool down for a few hours. I told her it had stopped working since the night before and that I had left it switched off overnight and it still wouldn't work. She suggested I switch the machine off and remove the hard drive like that would make a difference. It didn't.
She eventually got me off the line by saying that she couldn't go any further with this until we had ascertained whether the problem was with the console or the discs, and she claimed that the only way to do this was for me to re-try the pile of games and DVDs out on another console to see whether it was an issue with the games or the console. I told her that my games had all been working, and I'd tried them before, everything had been in perfect working order right up until last night. I told her that my console is under a month old and that my games are brand new and the discs are completely unscratched. She wouldn't accept that. She insisted that I try my games out on another console, gave me a reference number and would not discuss the matter any further.
She did ask me if I had any other questions, so I asked about the other enquiry I had made, a week and a half ago, about removing the credit card details from my xbox, so that if the console is stolen no-one can commit fraud and buy points with my credit card. She went "let me tell you this!" and told me something about the details sticking around until the next billing cycle (whenever that may be), and that the last 4 digits of a card will be shown in the dashboard but they cannot be used.
Grr, Microsoft. Always doing half a job and leaving a huge mess and expecting the user to be happy with it.
At that point I could tell she was really really annoyed with me, she was all snappy and I knew she wanted to get rid of me, so I hung up. I felt really quite angry with her. So I decided to give it a rest for a few hours.
I am sorry to make a post here in which I feel angry. I didn't intend for this blog to be a venting ground, but this is what happened.
I rang back after 4pm, quoted my reference number to the woman on the phone (who also had an Indian accent), and she spent a while reading the details of the case. I told her that it was definitely a problem with the console and not the discs, and she said she would set up a repair ticket for me ("please bear with me, the system is very slow"). She asked if I would like a shipping label by email or by post, saying that by email would be faster and more convenient, and I said that by post would be faster and more convenient because I don't own a printer. She seemed alright with that. Again, I waited. She apologised for making me wait, saying that the system had just crashed. Again, I waited. She was coughing and making uncomfortable throat noises quite often. I felt quite sorry for her, as working in a call centre is the worst place for a person with a sore throat! She told me that the delivery and collection would be done by UPS, it would be taken for repair and should be returned within 2-3 weeks and there would be no charge as the console is under warranty.
That's just as well. If they had dared to charge me money for repairing a console that stopped working in under a month, I would have been so angry!
She told me that before returning the console, I should remove any custom faceplates and the hard drive and any other peripherals and accessories. And asked me to patiently wait.
I could hear a man shouting in the background behind her. Not just plain yelling, but perhaps angrily demanding something? I wondered if I should ask if everything was alright. More people were coughing in the background.
Eventually, she told me that the system had returned with an error, and gave me a reference number to ring back with tomorrow. [sigh] She asked me if there were any other issues I'd like to discuss, and I let her go. This phone call had lasted over 30 minutes and there had probably been under 5 minutes of talking! Such a long wait, so much apologising!
So... I'll be sending my nice new console in for repair very soon. I hope they are good to it, and that my console is all nice and shiny when it comes back. I've heard that sometimes people get replacements when they're sent in for repair, and I'm dreading that I might get my nice shiny new broken console replaced by a tatty old nasty 2nd-hand refurbished only-just-working console. :(
Well, at least in the meantime, the only thing that is broken is the DVD drive so I can play Space Giraffe off the hard drive... ^_^
After that, it wouldn't read any discs. I put in a disc, it says "reading" .... and then instead of the name of the game, it says "open tray". It doesn't recognise discs. I tried a whole pile of different games, nothing would work.
So I went to bed, and in the morning tried to ring the support line. They're only open 9am to 5pm so I spent some time jotting down the serial number ready. When I got through, I was through to a woman with an Indian accent. I have a cold so I suppose I must have been hard to understand. I ended up repeating myself an awful lot, and the line kept cutting out and beeping so she was hard to understand, too.
We went through all sorts of things, I explained the problem a few times, told her what I could see... registered the console with the serial number... for some reason she kept asking me if the time and date were right on the console - which are automatically updated when it's connected to the internet, but the internal battery is dead so the clock is wrong otherwise - went through the menu to "console settings" -> "startup" -> "disc" but now it won't let me change whether to start on the dashboard or DVD, it just goes backwards to the previous page on the menu. (?)
At her request I tried a DVD and an audio CD - the DVD failed, but the CD works (it even grabbed the track listing which quite impressed me, since it was an import Utena soundtrack). She asked me if the console was too hot. I said yes, it's hot but how hot is too hot? She asked if it was too hot. I said it's hot, you could use it as a hand-dryer. She asked me if there was ventilation, I said it's sitting there on its own, nowhere near anything else, and that it's a smokeless environment, there shouldn't be a problem with the air. She said maybe I should switch it off and let it cool down for a few hours. I told her it had stopped working since the night before and that I had left it switched off overnight and it still wouldn't work. She suggested I switch the machine off and remove the hard drive like that would make a difference. It didn't.
She eventually got me off the line by saying that she couldn't go any further with this until we had ascertained whether the problem was with the console or the discs, and she claimed that the only way to do this was for me to re-try the pile of games and DVDs out on another console to see whether it was an issue with the games or the console. I told her that my games had all been working, and I'd tried them before, everything had been in perfect working order right up until last night. I told her that my console is under a month old and that my games are brand new and the discs are completely unscratched. She wouldn't accept that. She insisted that I try my games out on another console, gave me a reference number and would not discuss the matter any further.
She did ask me if I had any other questions, so I asked about the other enquiry I had made, a week and a half ago, about removing the credit card details from my xbox, so that if the console is stolen no-one can commit fraud and buy points with my credit card. She went "let me tell you this!" and told me something about the details sticking around until the next billing cycle (whenever that may be), and that the last 4 digits of a card will be shown in the dashboard but they cannot be used.
Grr, Microsoft. Always doing half a job and leaving a huge mess and expecting the user to be happy with it.
At that point I could tell she was really really annoyed with me, she was all snappy and I knew she wanted to get rid of me, so I hung up. I felt really quite angry with her. So I decided to give it a rest for a few hours.
I am sorry to make a post here in which I feel angry. I didn't intend for this blog to be a venting ground, but this is what happened.
I rang back after 4pm, quoted my reference number to the woman on the phone (who also had an Indian accent), and she spent a while reading the details of the case. I told her that it was definitely a problem with the console and not the discs, and she said she would set up a repair ticket for me ("please bear with me, the system is very slow"). She asked if I would like a shipping label by email or by post, saying that by email would be faster and more convenient, and I said that by post would be faster and more convenient because I don't own a printer. She seemed alright with that. Again, I waited. She apologised for making me wait, saying that the system had just crashed. Again, I waited. She was coughing and making uncomfortable throat noises quite often. I felt quite sorry for her, as working in a call centre is the worst place for a person with a sore throat! She told me that the delivery and collection would be done by UPS, it would be taken for repair and should be returned within 2-3 weeks and there would be no charge as the console is under warranty.
That's just as well. If they had dared to charge me money for repairing a console that stopped working in under a month, I would have been so angry!
She told me that before returning the console, I should remove any custom faceplates and the hard drive and any other peripherals and accessories. And asked me to patiently wait.
I could hear a man shouting in the background behind her. Not just plain yelling, but perhaps angrily demanding something? I wondered if I should ask if everything was alright. More people were coughing in the background.
Eventually, she told me that the system had returned with an error, and gave me a reference number to ring back with tomorrow. [sigh] She asked me if there were any other issues I'd like to discuss, and I let her go. This phone call had lasted over 30 minutes and there had probably been under 5 minutes of talking! Such a long wait, so much apologising!
So... I'll be sending my nice new console in for repair very soon. I hope they are good to it, and that my console is all nice and shiny when it comes back. I've heard that sometimes people get replacements when they're sent in for repair, and I'm dreading that I might get my nice shiny new broken console replaced by a tatty old nasty 2nd-hand refurbished only-just-working console. :(
Well, at least in the meantime, the only thing that is broken is the DVD drive so I can play Space Giraffe off the hard drive... ^_^
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