Ah-Ha! Someone seems to be giving me a run for my money.
Of course this is no competition, but it's good to see someone plowing through some classics. So good to see "Sea Master System" pop up in this thread.
1. Ogre Battle - PS1
2. Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - PC
I guess this counts even though it is an expansion. I beat Act V with my solo Barbarian on expert. I am also on Act IV with the new Crusader class.
The expansion fixes many of the end game issues of balancing and makes continued play more rewarding. The adventure mode is also a lot of fun.
I really enjoyed most of the levels and maps for Act V and the crusader class is a strong addition. I like it more than some of the other classes in the base game.
Last edited by Jmustang1968 on Thu Apr 17, 2014 2:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Ah-Ha! Someone seems to be giving me a run for my money.
Of course this is no competition, but it's good to see someone plowing through some classics. So good to see "Sea Master System" pop up in this thread.
Haha, don't worry I have no prayer of catching up. Too many RPGs on deck. I already have Final Fantasy II (GBA port) and III (remake) in my DS ready to go. I'll probably also play through Dragon Warrior and the original Phantasy Star (either on SMS or the PS2 remake) this summer.
I'd noticed that while I tend to consider Panzer Dragoon games as some of the best rail shooters of all time, I'd only ever actually beaten Zwei. So I decided to rectify this by playing through as much of the series as I can. What better place to start than at the beginning?
On its release Panzer Dragoon was Sega's most expensive game ever, a fact proudly displayed on the box. It was a statement on intent for the Saturn and its capabilities with 3D graphics. I'm sure it blew a fair few young minds; I wouldn't have known owing to no one at my school owning a Saturn.
Nowadays the game is graphically dated. The aesthetic still shines through, but the graphics themselves have not aged well: there are a lot of jagged edges and the draw distance is poor. While the frame rate is a tad choppy, the game does run full screen and with a decent video connection looks very crisp.
But as I said, the aesthetic, that sort of techno-organic post-human dystopia where giant monsters roam and dragons are a creation of science and not magic somewhere between Jodorowsky's Dune and Nausicaa, that aesthetic still holds up very well. The textures may be low-res and the draw distance muddy, but that doesn't make the dragon any less beautifully designed or the Empire's warships any less intimidating and alien.
Panzer Dragoon also has another ace up its design sleeve with its superb soundtrack. At first I was going to come into the thread and say I felt it was a touch overrated, that because only the first level and title screen are orchestrated it sort of pulls the wool over peoples eyes(ears). But on listening to it in isolation, I can say it is indeed pretty great. It might be that the need to concentrate during gameplay and the lack of obvious repetitive melodies common in other older titles threw me off.
That brings me to the gameplay. This is a tough game at times, unforgiving with both lives and health, and generally built around the mentality of memorizing enemy/boss patterns whilst aiming to achieve as high a shot down percentage as possible (the only way to earn more continues). I'd be OK with that if it weren't for some flaws with control. You don't control the dragon unlike say Starfox 64. No barrel rolls here. Rather you point the aiming cursor and he will trundle in that direction. It can make avoiding some fast incoming fire bothersome and when you couple it with the slightly skewed camera perspective, some situations become tougher than they need to be. I also noticed on this run that there are some blind spots in firing at the very edges of the four 90 degree quadrants you can switch between. In a game so stingy with lives and health getting hit by a few unavoidable missiles is frustrating.
Panzer Dragoon is not a perfect game. Played today it can seem a slightly cruel and shallow experience and is, in my opinion, overshadowed by both of it's console sequels. It isn't unplayable by any means and it sports some of the series most memorable moments. It has an almost ephemeral storyline, but it also has atmosphere coming out of its ears.
What Panzer Dragoon should be remembered for is being one of rare occurrences when a big budget and genuine artistic vision, along with solid programming acumen, combine to create something truly new and fresh. I also believe Panzer Dragoon was the catalyst for Sega to try new avenues and take chances on new franchises which lead to seminal games like Shenmue, Jet Set Radio, Nights into Dreams and Crazy Taxi.
Panzer Dragoon Zwei(SS)
As I mentioned, I consider Zwei to be the superior game in almost every respect. There is more on screen this time but the graphics are neater with interior sections greatly benefiting from the improvement. There isn't any orchestral music but it contains some of the best tunes in the series. The set-pieces are larger now, level six being a prime example when you take on a colossal airship alone, flying over, through and under the ship slowly pulling it apart. It has some very memorable boss engagements and there are is a wider range of environments. The controls seem tighter and the game is less skimpy on continues. All very nice improvements over the base formula.
Panzer Dragoon Zwei does have a couple of new additions to the series. It introduces the berserk fire mode: each successful hit will fill up the berserk meter which when full will allow the dragon to fire a barrage of fire that also make you invincible. Good for bosses.
There are also alternative paths through some levels. As far as I can tell these don't actually alter the ending, but they do add to the replay value as well as being the key to some of the game's obscure collection of unlockable content. A problem I have with these alternative paths is that they aren't always obvious and you could easily glide past unless you used a guide or FAQ.
It also added the evolving dragon feature that would be used in both Saga and Orta, although in Zwei it seems more superficial. As your dragon starts off unable to fly we get to see the process it goes through as it turns from pup to adult, but I never got the sense these evolutions effected gameplay. Even if it made the regular fire slightly stronger, it was mitigated by stronger enemies. It's a minor flaw though and at no point hinders the player.
My major problems with the game stem from its short development cycle, which has lead to a shorter game. It stands as a prequel in the story, but in practice it feels like almost an add-on pack; the Opposing Forces to the originals Half-Life. It also comes quite close to being too forgiving. A skilled player of the first game should probably beat Zwei first time. However the unlockables and alternative routes go some way to actually making Zwei the more replayable game so...
So it's shorter but overall sweeter than it's predecessor and contains some of the most outstanding moments I have encountered on the Saturn. Despite some flaws I consider it a truly great game, in my Saturn top ten for sure. It's relative ease makes it preferable over the original as a game to kick back with on a lazy sunday and just enjoy the ride.
Panzer Dragoon Mini(GG emu)
I've always been curious about this japan only game gear release and using the dark arts of emulation I finally gave it a go. Shame it turned out to be a bit of a turkey.
Made for the slightly patronising "kids" range Panzer Dragoon Mini is a valiant if misguided attempt to shrink down a console behemoth for the Game Gear's blurry screen. And it doesn't really work. Some say it's closer to Space Harrier but I feel the more accurate comparison would be to the Terminator 2 game for the game boy. Yeah, that bad.
There is some good, I think the 360 degree shooting of the Saturn games has been sort of translated, though here the perspective changes are scripted, not player controlled. Some of Zwei's more memorable bosses make appearances and they are drawn quite well. The lock on system works fine. That's about it though.
The main problem the game has is with its schizophrenic difficulty. The first three levels are easy enough, too easy in fact with some bosses being beaten without you having to move. Then level four just flings everything at you at once with fire coming from all angles. It's such jolting enough to give you whiplash.
The visuals are also dull, endless plains with nothing on them and tiny enemy sprites with hard to define features. As stated, the bosses look good but everything else is a bore. Up until recently I'd have maybe given this a pass but after playing Triple Trouble and Tails Adventure I'd have to say this game just looks lazy. I think the Master System Outrun has more pizazz than this.
I would feel annoyed if I'd paid the high fee the game goes for these days. It's not appalling but it is half arsed and uninteresting. Avoid.
Panzer Dragoon Orta(Xbox)
By the time Orta came into being Sega had exited the console market and the team responsible for previous Panzer games, Team Andromeda, had been disbanded. A few of their number became part of Smilebit who developed Orta and using the power of the Xbox created what I think is the best Panzer Dragoon shooter and one of the best Xbox exclusive games. If ever a game was begging for the HD treatment it's this one.
Orta is essentially a distillation of everything that had made the Panzer Dragoon series so great up to this time. The team also looked at other rail-shooters made in the intervening years, notably Starfox 64 from which they cribbed the boost and brake ability. Cleverly this technique is combined with Panzer Dragoon Saga's boss battle system where you have to move to certain flanks of an enemy to deal damage or avoid attack, though here it is much faster.
Aside from the aforementioned boost/brake ability, the biggest innovation was having the dragon be able to switch between three distinct evolutions on the fly: the base wing, heavy wing and glide wing each with an individual traits. So the heavy wing deals the most damage and has a devastating berserk attack but cannot boost/brake leaving it open to attack. Conversely the glide wing can boost up to three times and its berserk is the only way to regain health, but its shot is very weak and can't lock on.
So the key to progress is learning which mode works best in which situation. You will not be able to beat this game by staying in any one mode and I think that's a very good thing.
If Orta's gameplay is a distillation of the series best elements, its levels are like a remastered greatest hits collection. There is another level set aboard a giant airship, except this time we see the innards of the ship in greater detail before battling a giant moving statue topside. We revisit the jungle from Zwei and battle acid spitting worms. Another level harks back to the original as Orta travels though an ancient ruin to find out about her past and one level is a nod to Rez's design aesthetic. All of this is brought into stunning definition by the hardware and I think it remains one of that generations most visually striking games.
This is a longer game than the other two, though it now offers a checkpoint before a boss encounter (although it doesn't replenish any health). It's also a lot more challenging. You see the first game had that old fashioned lazily designed challenge: fewer continues=greater challenge. Orta however gives you checkpoints and saves between levels but also turns up the skill requirement, especially for boss encounters, by quite a bit. It's not the hardest game in the world, but some of those bosses can be downright harsh with strict windows to do damage and quick reflexes needed to avoid certain death.
This does lead to a few problems though, ones the series has never really shook off. Firstly it can still be hard to judge the distance of some projectile fire due to the camera. It can also be hard to avoid some as well as there are invisible walls that pen the dragon into the centre of the screen. Boosting can sometimes be tricky as it does not follow the direction the player has the camera but the direction the dragon is facing which can lead to brain-fart style situations where you want to boost left away from fire but instead go right headlong into it. In boss encounters this can lead to losing large lumps of health. On the last boss this will kill you. Speaking of bosses, all are magnificent, but some also drag and stubbornly refuse to die although learning how to beat them quickly is the key to getting a high rank.
The story is much more fleshed out this time but paradoxically is less interesting. The main antagonist is a robot seemingly programmed to destroy and the empire is evil because it's an evil empire. Whatever. Sega did include an interesting side quest as bonus where you can play as a Empire soldier but it doesn't do much for the overall plot.
As a whole though I see Panzer Dragoon Orta as the pinnacle of the series, one of the best Xbox exclusive games and one of the best rail-shooters ever. It has everything a Panzer Dragoon game should have whilst also adding some things from outside of its genre to spice things up. It's challenging without being unfair, its beautiful without being shallow and has some of gaming's best boss battles. Check it out.
Wipeout 3: Special Edition(PS1)
Unlocked all the vehicles and tracks including the ones from the original and 2097 while also beating tournament mode on Venom (normal). Not complete but beat.
This is a great game, probably my favourite PS1 racer. It just has everything going for it. Great track design, spot on control, that intangible feeling of weight the vehicles provide, really, really good graphics. The game looks great still and is a marvelous piece of coding with hardly any load times, 12 cars on track at a time and a constant framerate. Superb.
There are eight different ships to choose from this time and each one actually feels like its own machine which is a given these days but was rare back then. There is that whole risk/reward factor when picking certain ships, the sort you see in F-Zero games. Do you go with the faster but lighter armored racer and trust in your skills, or would this track suit a sturdier ship with better acceleration in the corners? There is strategy here which is appealing.
If you can go for the Special Edition of this game. It's more expensive but adds in eight tracks from previous Wipeout games. All round a great package.
Dungeon Magic(Xbox)
Played on Taito Legends 2, this is a quirky isometric beat-em up with a fantasy bent. Think Shadow over Mystara, tilted.
Like a decent amount of the games on the Legends 2 compilation, it's a little rough around the edges and suffers slightly when compared to its contemporaries, but it's still a fun time to be had. It's probably a lot of fun, and more likely far more forgiving, with two or more players, but I was entertained until the end. Dungeon Magic doesn't out stay its welcome and it might even do a few things that will surprise you. Good stuff.
Jmustang1968 wrote:1. Ogre Battle - PS1
2. Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - PC
I guess this counts even though it is an expansion. I beat Act V with my solo Barbarian on expert. I am also on Act IV with the new Crusader class.
The expansion fixes many of the end game issues of balancing and makes continues play more rewarding. The adventure mode is also a lot of fun.
I really enjoyed most of the levels and maps for Act V and the crusader class is a strong addition. I like it more than some of the other classes in the base game.
w00t.
I need to dig into Adventure mode at some point myself
BoneSnapDeez wrote:You know what question is coming, right?
Where is Panzer Dragoon Saga?
And Dungeon Magic is awesome. I'm going to dump a ton of time into those Taito compilations later this year.
I ain't made of Panzer Dragoon Saga money, Bone.
I have the demo, which is just the first disc and I might give it a replay soon. There's also the AGES re-release of the first game for PS2 but it looks a bit whack. Might play some more rail-shooters next, Child of Eden, Rez etc.
I beat South Park: The Stick of Truth yesterday...
It definitely had plenty of laugh out loud moments. It was almost like watching a really long, way more vulgar than usual episode of the show, which was a very good thing. However for an RPG it was to easy. Players are able to continue immediately pretty right where they die, there were some annoying moments of bad quicktime control, and only light to moderately deep fighting mechanics. I beat the entire game only dying maybe 3 times (minus the annoying as hell abortion sequence) and only ever really using 3 out of the 6 party members, oddly which only included my character "the new kid in town", Butters, and Jimmy. I barely played as Stan at all bc he was a not essential character and not until the final battle did I even know I could use Kyle and Cartman. Regardless I still really enjoyed my 10-12 hours playthrough and it's the first RPG in a long time that I've beaten. I'd give this one a solid 8.5/10 if you like South Park or only 6/10 if you just like RPGs and some vulgar humor but don't really have a history watching the show.
"The librarian does not rue the library, nor the curator fear the exhibits. Rather they revel in their potential. And that is the beauty of a big backlog; pure potential." - Exhuminator
1) Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles - Genesis (rebeat)
2) Devil May Cry 2 – Xbox 360 via DMC HD Collection
3) Spyborgs
4) Truxton - Genesis (on Easy )
5) Sol-Feace - X68000
6) Super Mario Sunshine – Gamecube (finished off)
7) Strider 2 – PlayStation (x2)
VIII) Bionic Commando – NES
9) Goldeneye 007 – N64
10) Bionic Commando 2009 (PC)
11) Strider (NES)
12) Strider 2014 (PC)
My thoughts:
This game rocks. It has the swift action Strider is know for and it's been adapted to a living room experience. The game-length and Metroidvania style meshes with the Strider gameplay very well. I was not bored for a single minute of my 8-hour playthrough, even when I was running around, searching for health/energy upgrades. It's pretty easy though as there's a shit-ton of health containers and the kunai are overpowered. Though the options aren't very powerful, they can be spammed. Perhaps it has a more suitable level of challenge on Hard.
The soundtrack is nice, fits the action well, and is full of remixes. I don't think I'll be downloading the soundtrack soon, but it is pleasing to hear while slaying robots. The graphics are nice as well, but they aren't GPU killers. On that note, my dated rig runs this game perfectly at highest settings and 1080p resolution. While nice, the limited budget rears its ugly head at times, especially when the characters talk. WHY DON'T THEIR MOUTHS MOVE!
The plot is serviceable, considering its genre and heritage, but there's one thing that really bothers me: Strider Hiryu's a boring character. Hell, he's hardly a character. You don't learn anything about him and all of his dialogue is just generic phrases like: "I will slay your beast," and "And you will always be his servant." Bah.
Overall, a good game that's absolutely worth its asking price.
13) Batman: Arkham Asylum (PC)
My thoughts:
I I played this game back in '09 at Quakecon and later played the demo, but I haven't actually sat down with the game until recently.
It's not just a good Batman game, not just a good superhero game, it's a good game period. The combat works well, the stealth is fun and plausible without being frustrating or boring, and the voice actors from the animated series are very much appreciated.
The boss fights are kinda shitty and there's some parts where I don't think I would've figured out what the hell to do if the game hadn't explicitly told me. Other than that, it's good stuff.
14) Halo: Spartan Assault (PC)
My thoughts:
This one took me by surprise. I was expecting a serviceable Robotron 2084 derivative, but it's actually a pretty good top down shooter like Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. Except for the assault ops and the XP system in general, there's very little bullshit that gets in the way of the shooty gameplay. Only other negative I can think of is that the soundtrack kinda sucks, but to remedy that I just muted the music and played some Exodus and classic Metallica.
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