Summer Games Challenge 2026 - PRESS I FOR INVENTORY

[marurun]

Everyone's useful! Even Maru!

Yes! Everything's coming up Mil... Marurun!

I'm squishy but deadly.

[MrPopo]

So partway into Metal Gear Solid. It's definitely an iteration of Metal Gear 2, but in 3D. The camera angle is mostly top-down still, with the option of a 3D camera mostly used for checking door access numbers (which actually can be seen now) and looking for walls you can C4 open.

Also, it is shocking just how many cutscenes there are, plus their length. Nothing out of the ordinary compared to a JRPG of the era, but this is a stealth action game. I know it gets even lengthier as the series goes on, but it's surprising that gamers of the era were into it.

[Syndicate]

...alright, I think that I finally got a games list together. I'm going the peaceful route this time around since I'm getting started a little late. So I'm going with:

- Golden Axe (Genesis)
- Toe Jam & Earl (Genesis)
- Asura's Wrath
- Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay
- Dishonored
- Ilo Milo
- Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove (I'll try to get through the three new quests)

...I'm hoping the first two can be handled in a weekend then it'll on the longer games.

[alienjesus]

1. Mega Man Legends (PS1)
2. Star Control 2 (3DO)
3. Sonic CD (MCD)
4. Radiant Silvergun (SAT)
5. Grandia II (DC)

Today I finished up Star Control. Lots was done since my last post, but my favourite moment was during the final battle, where I had to pilot a ship commanded by the Pkunk, a race of psychic bird people. Most ships in the game slowly recharge ammo over time, but the pkunk ship would unload all of it's ammo in a second and then needed you to reload the ammo... by insulting people. So you'd fly around evasively mashing the C button to hear your pilot shout "Dodo! Idiot! Fool! to recharge before your next attack run. This was the most effective ship vs the final boss so that poor enemy was thoroughly emotionally damaged as well as physically destroyed by the end.

I really enjoyed playing through Star Control 2, which is a surprise because it's very much outside my usual wheelhouse, and because it's a 3DO game... and if you've ever played a 3DO you know that isn't necessarily the best sign. It was flawed - this port is fully voiced - but the voice acting doesnt have subtitles, the voices have weird echo effects and accents, and characters love to read out star system names in latin, or detailed co-ordinates during dialogue... often a single time, with no way to repeat it. I had to look up a few moments online to get the crucial information I had missed. There's also a few moments where things are just telegraphed badly, and the ship combat never really gets good. You can overpower your main ship to make it manageable in the latter half of the game, but then this is taken away from you for the final boss, so you're forced to use your weaker ships that you might have deliberately avoided using if you're like me. There's also a few uncomfortable stereotypes too - the race of kamikaze-ing marsupials speak with a very racist Japanese accent ('Herro, captain' type of stuff) and the main one you meet is even called 'Tanaka'. But problems aside I just wanted to keep playing. It's better than the sum of its parts I think.

Next up on my list will be Sonic CD, which I'm hoping will be a quick one and done playthrough.

[MrPopo]

If you accidentally kill Tanaka, his brother Katana will show up to give you a second chance at the Shofixti quest. In case it wasn't clear that the race was based off of WWII Japan. The original PC release didn't have voices and instead had different typefaces for every race to try and convey what they might sound like. You also could look at previous dialog at any time until you terminated the conversation.

I just wrapped up Metal Gear Solid, and it's kind of amazing how Kojima just plagiarizes most of the setpieces from Metal Gear 2, which is his own game. At times it can feel like a sort of remake, like how Star Fox 64 was a remake of Star Fox, except Metal Gear 2's plot is very important to the plot of Metal Gear solid.

[MrPopo]

Beginning my time with MGS2. There's been some work to evolve the stealth gameplay past what was done in MG2. You can now hide inside closets, which removes your radar, requiring you to use a heartbeat sensor to make guesses on when it is safe or not. Also, the game makes much more usage of first person mode. Most obviously, this comes from using it to nail enemies in the head with your tranq gun. An enemy hit with a tranq dart takes time to go down depending on where they're hit; a head hit is an instant incapacitation, but the default view doesn't aim at it. You can also move bodies, important for getting one out of the way of a patrol route, as enemies can discover bodies and go on alert (or just wake up an unconscious guard).

[Ack]

Powerslave

My playthrough of Powerslave continues. In fact, it's actually pretty close to the end. I've collected all of the weapons and artifacts that I need, I have found all of the ankhs that increase my maximum health, and I am currently missing one item to successfully build a transmitter required for the game's Good ending. I'm also clearing out levels on the way to the final boss. However, there are some secrets I am still going back for. Apparently there were special dolls representing the developers hidden in the game. While the original console releases have 23 dolls, the Nightdive remaster increased this number to 31. I have 8 currently, so I have a ways to go. I'm also not sure if I can go back once I beat the game, so I'm definitely focusing more on collecting the dolls right now than actual forward progress.

But I know what you really want...


Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord

I haven't had to give up on anyone yet, so Ack, Popo, Pidge, Maru, Note, and Key are still alive. I have fully explored floor 1 of the dungeon and headed down to floor 2, where my explorations have netted me sculptures I will likely need further down the dungeon. Now I'm focusing on gathering information on enemies and grinding. My party ranges around levels 6-7, though there has been a change: Popo has changed jobs, from Fighter to Samurai.

Job changes can do some interesting things in Wizardry I. They reset your attributes and lower your level back down to 1, but you keep the max HP you had earned from your previous job. If you had the ability to cast spells and learned them, you also keep those, though you likely won't be able to cast as many. While Fighters don't learn spells, Samurai do manage to get Mage spells, and even with the reset, gear was kept, so Popo has managed to get back up in levels relatively quickly. However, due to the weird way in which Wizardry handles HP rolls, he's seen limited HP growth in the meantime; hopefully he's due for a jump soon.

Unfortunately, battlefield realities and spell knowledge may require a party org change soon. As wonderful as Pidge is as a frontline fighter (and with a ridiculous amount of tanky HP to back it up), the real threat from Floor 2 to my party is status effects (specifically Poison and Paralysis), and Pidge is the only one with the spells to counter those status effects. Note, as a Bishop, has not yet learned how to cure any status effects. While Note's HP is not as high as Pidge's, he can wear the same armor and wield the same weapons, so I'm thinking I should swap the two for the time being. I'd love to keep Pidge on the frontline, but Paralysis is the major threat right now and expensive to heal, and Pidge is ALWAYS the first person the enemies successfully target with it (Ack being the favorite second target, so don't feel bad, Pidge). I need to do the swap to make the grind easier until hopefully Note learns the right spells or other options for healing status effects open up.

Admittedly it wouldn't be quite so bad if it wasn't so expensive to treat back in town, but I could use that money to purchase some of the +1 gear options available, just to make the team that much better defensively. Every little edge helps here.

4/10 DONE

1. Marathon 2 - BEATEN
2. Dementium: The Ward
3. Call of Duty: World at War - BEATEN
4. Corpse Party
5. Tex Murphy: Mean Streets
6. Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines - IN PROCESS
7. Sniper Elite - BEATEN
8. Powerslave - IN PROCESS
9. Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord - IN PROCESS
10. Duke Nukem Forever - BEATEN

[MrPopo]

Finished MGS2, and the ending is kinda batshit. And Otacon's backstory is kinda batshit. And I think the gameplay was not quite as well put together as MGS1's was. Still, a very worthwhile game to play, and I'm looking forward to 3.

[Ack]

PowerSlave is done! I decided to buckle down and grab the rest of the developer dolls, but it actually requires you beat the final boss and go for the good ending to do so, so I grabbed the last missing computer piece I needed and took out the final boss.

Happy to say I have now beaten half of my Summer Challenge games, and I am working on two of the remaining five!

5/10 DONE

1. Marathon 2 - BEATEN
2. Dementium: The Ward
3. Call of Duty: World at War - BEATEN
4. Corpse Party
5. Tex Murphy: Mean Streets
6. Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines - IN PROCESS
7. Sniper Elite - BEATEN
8. PowerSlave - BEATEN
9. Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord - IN PROCESS
10. Duke Nukem Forever - BEATEN

[MrPopo]

I've started MGS3, and it's definitely a step up in difficulty. Since it's set in the 60s, you don't have access to the magic radar that tells you where nearby enemies are and their vision cones. Additionally, so far I've been moving through the jungle, which makes enemies harder to see, and it's much harder to avoid enemy sight. And it feels like enemy line of sight goes much longer than it did in the previous games.