#485 Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis

Posted: 28th December 2018 by Jeroen in Games
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749th played so far

Genre: Shoot ‘Em Up
Platform: PC
Year of Release: 2001
Developer: Bohemia Interactive Studio
Publisher: Codemasters

According to the book, this is the first soldier FPS – focused on the reality of participating in war rather than the shooter fantasies of, say, Quake (to use a not quite contemporary). More realistic loadouts, weapons and so on. It’s a formula since followed by many others, Call of Duty foremost amongst them.

They’ve usually not appealed to me quite as much as the all guns blazing variety, as they can be story light (and with a story I don’t care about) and don’t end up being much fun. I don’t feel the need to experience (and revel in) war that closely. It’s still a popular genre, though, and so there are plenty of entries for them left on the list – so we still have to progress through it.

Our Thoughts

So I suppose that this is a pretty accurate military shooter – it’s very team based, with tactic elements being available even if the first levels have you working under the commands of someone else. Their AI feels awkward, pointing you in the wrong direction with its orders, but the game at least tries to emulate the commands and I assume does a lot to give you that control in later levels as you lead a squad through. The interface for it works as well as it can, but it’s a bit fiddly for me. Luckily, ignoring it didn’t seem to matter much in the grand scheme of things.

The cut scenes don’t do the speed of the game any favours. They are in engine, but they drag and could have been scripted and set up more tightly. It’s all a bit flaky and unnecessary, as the story isn’t that great to be honest. I wasn’t interested from the ongoing paranoia.

Then getting into the first level is difficult as well. There’s a long driving cutscene after which you’re walking in an empty field for a while. There are comments about distant enemies, but they don’t appear and I’m fairly sure they are buggy. Then as you come to the village (either ahead of the rest because they move so slowly or out of position because I was getting that bored) and see some specks in the distance. And then you are dead because you are (quite realistically) killed that quickly and the opponents have great accuracy. To be fair, I got a bit closer once or twice, but half the squad died and I couldn’t do much more, but I have no idea what went wrong and what I could have done better. There’s nothing to go on and it wasn’t much fun. So after about five goes, I had to decide that first level was the final one. It’s a shame.

Final Thoughts

While the first Operation Flashpoint game is quite admirable in how it is the first to create this atmosphere and type of game. It doesn’t quite give enough information to really help beginning players, though, and it has all the edges of a seventeen year old game, that make it harder to get into the game or want to stay in it as well.

Interestingly, this finishes three quite different shoot em ups in a row. This FPS-adjacent game is one style, while we had a run and gun shooting game a few days ago and played a 3D space shooters last week. It’s quite interesting to see how different these games are, even without the obvious Space Invaders clone as well. I’m always happy to see the variety that can be in a genre and seeing these near each other makes it even more interesting. Still, it’s a strategy game next time – certainly something different.

#218 Contra III: The Alien Wars

Posted: 26th December 2018 by Jeroen in Games
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748th played so far

Genre: Shoot ‘Em Up
Platform: SNES
Year of Release: 1992
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami

I’m making my way through the franchises I haven’t started yet, I am coming across some that I haven’t started because I haven’t really cared enough. The Contra series is another run and gun series – very mild platformers that focus on you shooting loads of enemies. They were an arcade favourite that would have found success on home consoles as well, but were either taken over by FPSes as a popular game or combined with other genres, between platformers and beat ’em ups. I mean, Bionic Commando Rearmed did it as well, but added to it.

Our Thoughts

So Contra 3 is a pretty standard run and gun game – you run down a level and have enemies attacking from both directions, while you try to advance through the level. I’ve not been helped by direction changes feeling a bit clunky, which made the game a bit annoying to play in places.

There’s a decent variety of weapons, coming from enemies you shoot out of the sky. It’s quite fun to play around with these and you get two options, allowing for some strategizing. It means that, on the whole, taking out enemies is decent enough – though nothing too difficult.

The game, however, also contains its own amount of platforming, more than games of the genre tend to. What helps is that there’s a bunch of destructible terrain, creating a game that feels quite dynamic, and adds in decent terrain obstacles – including podobo-like balls that jump out of the fire. Not realistic, but it works quite well, and they were quite difficult to deal with in the end.

Final Thoughts

While Contra 3 is a pretty standard run and gun, it at least has some nice level based touches that make progression a bit more interesting than having extra enemies appear.

#280 Star Wars: TIE Fighter

Posted: 16th December 2018 by Jeroen in Games
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747th played so far

Genre: Shoot ‘Em Up
Platform: PC
Year of Release: 1994
Developer: Totally Games
Publisher: LucasArts

There is a subset of Star Wars games that focuses on the space dog fights that are a part of the franchise – small crafts flying around as they chase each other around the large structures. They were even part of the Lego Star Wars games, as annoying as they might have been there.

For me, they were not the favourite part of the series and I’m not very hopeful for the games either. There are four games on the list – two in the Tie Fighter line and two in the newer Rogue Squadron line. I still need to start both and you’ll see Rogue Squadron come around in a few weeks. Today, we fight as part of the empire, so let’s see how we go.

Our Thoughts

One of the things that usually gets me in these games is that they can be disorienting. I don’t think it was as much of an issue with Star Fox, although I remember that as being more on rails, but with the likes of Elite it seemed like that black void didn’t let me orient myself at any point. However, I guess Tie Fighter must have set a new high, as I never felt like I was spending a lot of time figuring out where I’m going.

That made it more fun to go through these space battles, flying up to different craft to check them and chasing enemies. There’s a decent targeting system that gives you a fair amount of control and makes it easier to follow your enemies (including speed matching) or your allies if you need to. You still have to get your aim correct, which isn’t always as easy, but the game kept me from constantly spiralling.

The game still stayed challenging for me, as aiming stayed tricky, and the big long fights got quite tricky to keep up with. It stayed fun to play, however, setting a standard for other games to now live up to.

#985 Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10

Posted: 12th December 2018 by Jeroen in Games
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746th played so far

Genre: Sports
Platform: Various
Year of Release: 2009
Developer: EA Tiburon
Publisher: Electronic Arts

I’ve mentioned my general discomfort with sports games before, as a genre that I don’t get much out of. I can understand why they’re popular and why people would enjoy them, but I often find them awkward to control and difficult to follow.

Non-team sports tend to fare better and golf especially feels different – Golden Tee Live was its own special experience, but even Mario Golf managed to hit a decent spot and recently Golf Story has been a great early Switch hit. The PGA Tour series is the leading franchise for the golf genre, so we play what was the latest one when the original list was released – back when Tiger Woods could lead the franchise.

Our Thoughts

Let’s start by being clear about one thing – a golf game is still a golf game, and the basics of that haven’t changed. Sure, the courses here look better than ever, but in the end you’re still doing the same thing as always.

The swing system is a lot better than most. Usually there’s the system of aiming, followed by a pointer moving across a bar where you want to hit the right area. Here, you use the full range of a thumbstick, pulling back and pushing forward to simulate the swing. It’s a system that gives you more options to aim and allows for more trick shots without feeling complicated. It was intuitive and felt really satisfying to play. The game makes its limits on how far you’ll hit clear, assuming a perfect shot, which helps you put some limits in. It makes it quite easy to get through the basics of the game. You need to learn how to do it perfectly, but it’s surprisingly easy to pick up the game and just play.

The game has a lot of courses, set up in various tournament setups, as well as a bunch of cosmetics and gameplay changes to buy. It’s obviously a system to really get stuck in, but it felt less required here than it otherwise would be, which makes for a nice balance between long term gameplay and first time goes.

Final Thoughts

TIger Woods PGA Tour 10 is the best golf game I’ve played – it looks good and has more intuitive controls than most. I still struggled in places – especially putting, which (it sounds like) is a problem on most golf games anyway. There’s room for clearing things up, but on the whole it’s a decent way to play golf from your couch.

#642 F.E.A.R.

Posted: 8th December 2018 by Jeroen in Games
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745th played so far

Genre: First-Person Shooter
Platform: PC
Year of Release: 2005
Developer: Monolith Productions
Publisher: Sierra Entertainment/Vivendi Universal Games/Warner Bros. Games

Supernatural elements to the extent that F.E.A.R. seems to have, based on the reading I have done so far, are normally the domain of the survival horror. Resident Evil has some of it together with its zombies and it sounds like Eternal Darknessย revolves around it.

Here, though, it’s a clearer shooter, with no survival elements. It feels like a different way of dealing with horror and I’m wondering how it will all fit together.

Our Thoughts

Looking at F.E.A.R., the story is what stands out. In a world where you seem to have a psychic connection to something, the game has a bunch of small cutscenes where the shooting gets interrupted by weird occurences – encounters, destruction, just things that feel weird. It’s a neat way to keep the world unsettling, allowing for some in level storytelling, without interrupting the flow.

Unfortunately, in between those story bits, the game feels like a bog standard military shooter – limited weapons, loads of enemies and long, endless, samey levels that seem to go on forever – the water plant really started boring me after a while. There’s little new that seems to be introduced, and while there’s a part of bullet time included, it didn’t feel like it made much of a difference to me.

But it’s a real shame, because the nuggets of story rewards are few and there’s a lot in between, with what’s in between feeling uninspiring and unnecessary.

#306 The Neverhood

Posted: 4th December 2018 by Jeroen in Games
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744th played so far

Genre: Adventure
Platform: PC
Year of Release: 1996
Developer: The Neverhood, Inc.
Publisher: Dreamworks Interactive

The Neverhood is another game I’ve been looking forward to for a long time. My first school diary for secondary school came with a demo disc for a bunch of games (it was video game themed) and this was one of the demos that was included. I didn’t know of any other links (Earthworm Jim wasn’t on my radar at the time and I never really got into it afterwards) but the claymation intrigued me and the puzzles were fun. I’ve always wanted to play more of it to see where the story goes and enjoy the animations and in the past few years I’ve held off for this game.

Our Thoughts

Let’s start with the positives (and they outweigh the downsides mostly). The Neverhood is a gorgeous game, the claymation not having aged even if some of the cinematics themselves have started to look a bit rough – in the game itself it looks fine. The world is colourful, a bit wonky but with a decent amount of variation. Just the first few houses are inviting and interesting to explore.

The puzzles are a mixed batch. Unlike the likes of LucasArts games, there’s no dialogue and there’s no inventory to speak off (you have some space, but it’s not as big a part of puzzle solving). Instead, the puzzle are real puzzles, things like getting the levels of pipes right and doing sliding puzzles. There’s some backtracking required, but early on it plays quite well and teaches you some of the stranger mechanisms.

This changes a bit later on. The puzzles doesn’t necessarily get loads more difficult, but instead they get tedious. This starts early on with a optional tape that tells part of the backstory of the world being hidden behind a five minute long corridor, which only barely compares to the required path around a mountain cliff you undertake in this weird scooter – the length sort of obfuscates what goes on, but it still feels like it could be a lot faster. Sadly, it wore me out after a while, as it just wasn’t enjoyable to keep retrying, and left the game alone when the endgame just pushed it too much.

Final Thoughts

I’m really torn on The Neverhood. The world looks lovely and invites exploration, having plenty of treats around. It’s more of a puzzle game than most, but sadly it doesn’t seem to be able to keep them constrained enough. Considering this came after the giants of Myst and Day of the Tentacle (and Loom pulled off the inventory light adventure game better), it feels that should have provided a good base. Still, it’s worth it as its own experiment that maybe pushed further than it should have.

#80 Jet Set Willy

Posted: 30th November 2018 by Jeroen in Games
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743rd played so far

Genre: Platform
Platform: ZX Spectrum
Year of Release: 1984
Developer: Software Projects
Publisher: Software Projects/Tynesoft

Some games are on this list because of their legacy and place in history, rather than being the best out there – if you grew up with it, you probably consider it great, but it’s not necessarily that good (or accessible) as modern games. For me, these home PC platformers feel like they’re in that group, with Jet Set Willy being fondly remembered but, from all I can see, maybe a bit outdated and not having stood the test of time as, say, Pac-Man or even MUD has.

I mean, that’s probably sacrilege to those who grew up with it, but home machine platformers haven’t impressed me much yet and later changed things so much that I am hesitant to expect much of this game.

Our Thoughts

And of course I’d seen enough to know this game wasn’t as impressive. This platformer isn’t too impressive now. While it has an interesting larger world, spanning several screens that create more routes through the area. You’re running around through the house, picking up items to clean it up and can only go to bed after that. While it’s a slightly different story, the house isn’t consistent enough to pull it off – it could just be any group of random screens.

I didn’t do well with the controls. Stairs are awkward (jumping makes you go through them) and hitboxes and jumps made it difficult to avoid any hazards. I got through a few screens, but I struggled to really get past anything but the simplest.

I guess what didn’t help is that collection of random screens – on these open games, exploration can be its own reward, with a tension between what you expect and the surprises you can get from it. Here, however, everything is so disjointed that the rewards aren’t there and the effort I put in doesn’t feel right. Some actual foculs would have been nice, but what’s there now doesn’t hold up anymore.

#648 Garry’s Mod

Posted: 26th November 2018 by Jeroen in Uncategorized
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742nd played so far

Genre: Role-Playing
Platform: PC
Year of Release: 2005
Developer: Facepunch Studios
Publisher: Valve Corporation

Garry’s Mod, taken on its own, isn’t strictly a game. It’s a physics sandbox to either mess around in (which you could call a game, but without goals) or to play the maps, game modes and props created by other people. And mostly multiplayer – the game really encourages you to work together. It’s like Minecraft without any of the gameplay mechanisms.

Since I’m feeling a bit limited finding much in the sandbox mode, I’ve gotten myself a bunch of game modes and maps to see what it’s like. Jazztronauts, for example, has just been released as I write this – a mode that takes you to other maps and has you steal its props. How does it work? We’ll see, but clearly it does somehow.

Our Thoughts

I’m not sure I have much to say about Garry’s Mod on its own. It does what it says, import packages from other Source games and place them, pose them and let them move. They can move and do things and I’m sure you can build some cool videos in it, but as a game it lacks goals and systems and as a sandbox, there’s little innate discovery to be done. That’s fine, but I couldn’t really muster any inspiration to do anything with that.

So on to game modes I went. It was quite tricky – I downloaded a whole bunch of them, but there were several I couldn’t quite get to work. Once I got through adjusting game modes, some seemed broken and others weren’t really worth much on my own, so that’s what it was.

Jazztronauts, however, did what I wanted. Through whatever magic they managed to put in the game (it feels pretty impressive) they created a mode that lets you travel through pretty much all of the maps on the Steam workshop for the game and steal props and other things from it. The hub level showed off a nice environment, though the writing felt to me as being of mixed quality, but it was interesting to see all the different maps out there. Admittedly, some were broken because prerequisites weren’t handled well, but it’s been amazing to see.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to quickly get any story maps to work. It’s possible that I overlooked the ones I had downloaded – I struggled quite a bit with identifying maps and making sense of everything. It adds to the homemade feeling of the whole game, but I guess I didn’t dive quite deeply enough.

Final Thoughts

Garry’s Mod is an amazing tool for creating content. It doesn’t come build in with that, but as a sandbox tool it looks amazingly featured to work with. If I had any plans, I’d love to try it – and maybe one day I will – but don’t expect an amazing experience out of the box. Even for this, I feel I spent a lot of time preparing the game to create what I wanted. It wouldn’t have felt right for this game without that, though.

#784 Retro Game Challenge

Posted: 22nd November 2018 by Jeroen in Games
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741st played so far

Genre: Action
Platform: DS
Year of Release: 2007
Developer: indieszero
Publisher: Namco Bandai Games/Xseed Games

I feel I’ve referenced Ultimate NES Remix before, the game that takes old NES games and has you do a Warioware style minigame on a smaller part of it – see how well you do at the challenges and how far you can get.

Retro Game Challenge does a similar thing, but based on retro-like games that were created for this game, with a story surrounding that. Apparently, it’s based on a Japanese TV show – not something that would transfer here, so instead I’ll have to rely on the game itself to explain its premise.

Our Thoughts

I think that presentation came across a bit lackluster to me – a young version of the game’s presenter being excited you’ll play with him so you can head back to your own time – but it creates some nice touches around being able to see old manuals and hints in magazines for these fabricated games. Those matter because the challenges for these games are quite specific, perhaps starting as a simple score attack, but later requiring you to use these secrets to progress.

The first game is a Galaga clone that plays quite close to this genre of shooters. There’s a mini game inbetween that consists of shooting rocks, but it’s somewhat separate from the main gameplay – still dangerous, but it mostly serves as a way to rack up points. It’s quite faithful in style to the old games without outright copying them, which is what works so well. The challenges – clearing a stage or using warps – go up in difficulty until the last require you to clear the game and, well, that’s where it broke down for me.

Rather than letting you go through the next game after a few challenges and leaving a few more for later objectives – perhaps required to beat the game, but not immediate progression – Retro Game Challenge requires you to beat all the challenges before moving to the next game. Which may have some slight merit, but if you can’t do it, well, that’s most of the content of the game gone. After all, I couldn’t beat the first game, so I couldn’t see what else there is on offer. It feels really out of place and poorly balanced at a time when I would have expected the developers to consider the hurdles. While you may aim it at hardcore gamers, I would have hoped the nostalgia factor would be more important.

Final Thoughts

It’s unfortunate this game’s difficulty threw such a spanner in the works as it feels unnecessary – the game would have worked as well and made its point as much without the high difficult. There’s a lot of creativity here to make the game work, but I feel cheated since I never got a chance to really see that.

#841 Spelunky

Posted: 18th November 2018 by Jeroen in Games
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740th played so far

Genre: Action/Adventure
Platform: PC
Year of Release: 2008
Developer: Mossmouth, LLC
Publisher: Mossmouth, LLC

When listening to recent gaming podcasts, people whose taste I generally agree with or at least respect mention Spelunky as a game they really enjoy, its daily challenges especially being something they love to engage in as being a great driver to keep playing and offering an experience that relies so much on skill and player knowledge.

Spelunky is a roguelike platformer – featuring random levels like Nethack, but focusing on platforming skill and action to take on enemies and challenges rather than a turn based RPG system. The challenges, though, come from how systems combine and never just a single problem, or they would once you get the experience. Emergent gameplay and all that – we’ll see how it goes.

Our Thoughts

Spelunky is a challenging game. A lot of the individual challenges aren’t too difficult – correct jumpins and taking out enemies – some can make your life difficult if you don’t know the trick yet. The real challenge comes from the accumulation of elements, as enemies pop up at the wrong time, jumps are tricky and while reaching the exit isn’t always the hardest, doing so optimally is.

Because there’s always something else to go for. Shops have tools – once you can’t always afford early on, but want to get. Treasure is buried underground and there are even entire rooms that you can only reach by getting through the walls, mostly using your bombs. They are, of course, a limited resource, so you need to consider whether you’ll get enough benefit out of using There are constant trade offs, which adds a strategic dimension beyond the action segments.

Even with the time I spent on it, I noticed I was starting to discover more systems even towards the end and even as I didn’t progress in levels. As I’m meant to get more as I progress in levels, I’m curious to see where all that will end up.

Graphically, the game is fairly simple. I played the HD version, which uses redrawn, cartoony graphics rather than the sprite work of the original version, and the bold colours help make everything stand out. They’re effective and the changes as you go through are enough to add to the fun of discovering and exploring these levels.

Final Thoughts

In the end, Spelunky is a difficult game and I probably missed out on a lot. The systems just don’t seem readily explored like this, but the layers that I’ve already seen are enough to pull me in further.

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