Last month, I was under the impression that Chrono Cross was to be released on the Nintendo Switch. Nostalgic but bitter, I bought a PS1 and Chrono Cross and managed to play one full time, about 60 hours total, before the disc drive failed. No hope of getting a refund, I was understandably miffed. I’d looked forward to revisiting all my original Playstation classics along with a few I had never played but wanted to.
But by then, I had learned to my shock that the game was being released on PS4, PC, and Xbox One as well, and that it was not a mere port; it was remastered!
Nobody had seemed to know about it. As I searched, there were speculative articles: the soundtrack had been modified and distressed the gamers who had played the original, released 22 years ago this August, in the US.
Ah, the month of August, 2000. Living in Sparrows Point, confined to my bedroom which was the only room equipped with an air conditioning window unit: it was fine by me. The kitchen was 98 degrees. I’d cook crab cakes and sweat profusely, take the meal to my room, shut the door and get lost in the tale of two worlds. Parallel Earths, one dying, one salvageable. Which was the one our hero belonged in?
I ended up getting all 11 endings, the whole month and part of September in gaming ecstasy.
Now, having once again played through the original, I have the remastered PS4 version.
The soundtrack has been modified, but so far, it is not something anyone but a hardcore Chrono fan would notice, and then only if you played the original recently. Also, most PS4 users have headphones, which enhance the new dynamic track and those make small changes seem more noticeable. It’s no big deal, but beautiful beyond compare to the original and, I must add, that is some feat.
The visuals include crisp and amazing models of the characters, and that’s unexpected. I imagined sharper images, but nothing like I’ve seen. The one problem is the backgrounds. Some are awesome while some look as if they were painted by brush using oils and watercolors. This is a little thing that hasn’t detracted from an immersive masterpiece.
This, you must understand, was a labor of love. The original game no longer existed as a complete code. The development team had to play it to reconstruct it. I suspect that if any original music does exist, that’s where I’ll find it, but since it’s done by the same composer, he will have kept to the basic areal themes. After all, Chrono Cross has never been forgotten as one of the finest game soundtracks ever made.
Gameplay
The story begins with a scene where three people (Serge, Kid and a random character) are fighting through ruins to activate a central transportation platform. At high levels and HP, we know there’s a catch. All games begin as level one protagonists, right? So there’s something wrong here, but the music lends an urgency to get through the area. We also don’t know that Serge, a teen, has fallen in love with Kid, another teen who’s pretty, but tomboyish and battle-hardened. She’s tough. The transport leads to an airborne structure above the ruins, where Serge hesitates. He’s bothered by something, but Kid urges him on. This leads to a cut scene which is, to understate, disturbing.
Now we find out why the characters were so leveled up: it was a nightmare suffered by Serge, who wakes up in his bed, called to by his mother. He was supposed to meet Leena, his girlfriend to go get some kommodo dragon scales for her to make a necklace. It’s critical that the player wanders the entire village first, finding certain items that will help him get started. The last thing any player should do is have Serge go alone; one character is immediately available to recruit, and it’s a good one: Poshul, Leena’s talking dog. Find a heckran bone hidden in someone’s house, and give it to the dog. She immediately joins your party.
Your party may consist of any three members, and they will have different abilities and resistance to magic and physical attacks. These can be overwhelming once the action gets hairy, so rotating members in and out, developing them and equipping them is challenging. Also, each will have different types of weapons and base element colors. Everyone comes with an element grid and using them effectively depends on who you’re about to fight, although indoors it becomes impossible to switch them.
Serge’s innate color is white, so he’s weaker against black innate characters; Kid’s is red, so you won’t use her in a boss fight when that boss has blue innate color. Zoah is yellow, so against green heavyweights, pull him in favor or a character who’s innate color is green.
That said, enemies of whatever color usually aren’t a problem once you gain about 15 stars. Not the basic enemies anyway; by then you’ll have upgraded armor and weapons along with accessories that can improve accuracy or protect a character. Exploring every region in any territory and winning battles yield cool things like rare Revive elements, hidden technical attacks, even armor.
As you play on, you realize that because it’s a classic turn-based JRPG, it is not a sandbox and therefore there’s no grinding. After a certain point, fighting will cease to yield points or spoils. This version offers a setting to turn off such battles. The classic game did have too much repetition, and it did get tiresome. There’s even an option for computer-controlled battles, but I’m just not able to go that route. Strategy is a big part of this game, and it is in every part, down to what you will do at each turn. Do you have Zoah do a Toss and Spike or cure a weaker member so they don’t need to have a revive used on them before you’ve felled even one of up to four enemies? These decisions are what makes the game great.
The cut scenes were magnificent the first time around; it is no different here. In 2000, I knew about the new PS2, but I was in awe of this game’s graphics and speed. No sweat loading or saving, and it pushed the original Playstation to its very limits. Squaresoft knew its stuff.
Also, in 2000, I had never played an RPG. What sold me was a demo disc that used to come with every Playstation (not PSM) Magazine which, I believe, was a sister publication of EGM. It went defunct a few years later. It should still be around. This, from the demo, is the in-game beginning, and what made me buy it without hesitation.
That’s all it took. Most demos were playable. I didn’t care, I wanted this game. Here’s that same sequence remastered with a look at the incredible precision of the actual game character models!
The Radical Dreamers is a separate game, a playable graphic novel that came between Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross. I’ll have to wait. Right now I’m living a dream come true, and it is a joy to see and play this unexpected masterpiece! I’m glad that a new generation gets to experience such an extraordinary game.
When Ubisoft announced that a new Assassin’s Creed game would be released in 2017, I took no notice; I was too poor to afford a new or used console of any kind. I was trapped in Xbox hell, playing the same games in cycles.
When the chance for a refurb PS4 came, I jumped on it. It was the year of Covid and I needed to keep busy.
There were two things I didn’t know:
The controllers for PS4 are notorious for having the thumbstick on either or both sides jam and make it impossible to play. In the case of Assassin’s Creed Origins, the right stick controls the camera. Mine got stuck always looking up or spinning in a circle, which drove me nuts with recon, fighting, swimming, even riding a horse.
So I fought the stick but to be honest, almost all sticks have had this problem from the Xbox up. I invested in a new one and continued.
The second thing I did not know was that there are hundreds of complaints about the game. Early on there were some bugs, and playing on the “Normal” difficulty setting was frustrating players.
Grinding
If you don’t know, this game doesn’t force you to “grind”; but it is designed to engage you in side quests that are telling more of Bayek’s story, and the story is very good. A man haunted by the death of his son, he seeks revenge and finds along the way that he can no longer tolerate the horrible things common people must deal with under Pharaoh Ptolemy who is fighting his sister CleopatraVII for sole control of Lower Egypt. Yes, that Cleopatra.
The first part has him returning to his home town after a year’s absence, with long hair and beard. He meets a friend who has been trying to keep the peace, but Bayek is a Medjay and those were kind of like the police back then. As he begins getting his bearings, short tasks get the player familiar with the controls, inventory, crafting upgrades to his armor and assigning ability points to gain new skills.
Ubisoft has long since patched up bugs, and gameplay is ripping good fun. One of my favorite Original Playstation games, Legacy of Kaine: Soul Reaver played very like this game engine does, as I was immediately reminded. Nostalgia has its benefits, even to a casual gamer. I loved Soul Reaver, so I wasn’t exactly a fish out of water.
Grinding doesn’t sound like much fun. Some players don’t mind a bit of it, but say this game wants too much out of them. Some never finished it out of frustration. I found the side quests fun, exciting and a very good way to occupy my time during the last couple of weeks, when my health went on a little trip. By which I mean deep depression and bouts of anxiety. This game was medicine. No triggers from the outside world can touch me when I’m in full game mode.
Besides, you’re not going to be able to stay in an area where XP levels 1-5 can survive, and going ahead will put you in battle with enemies two levels or more above you; you have to stay long enough to level up, make some loot, upgrade your weapons and abilities. Because not being ready means Desynchronization over and over again.
Framework
Bayek cannot die; he lived long ago. What we’re doing is reliving his memories through a modern rogue scientist, Layla Hassan. She has developed a technology called an Animus and lies down on a table, reliving Bayek’s memories gained by a DNA sample. In as much as she is only seeing his life, any mistake you make that gets Bayek killed can’t really happen. What results is “desynchronization” and the scene resets because he did not really die at that time. There’s never a “Game Over” screen.
That said, you can cause a desync to a frustrating degree if you choose poorly. I used a balanced approach, and went heavy on melee skills and weapons at first to get out of trouble faster but then started in on Seer and Hunter as I got more crafting materials and ability points.
Still, the first thing you need is to activate fast travel points as soon as you can. If you find yourself in too deep, press the control for the map. Any fast travel points you’ve synced with Senu, Bayek’s eagle, can be used to get out of trouble quickly and then you can spend time leveling up and then you go back and kick ass.
Weapons
There are three classes of weapons: regular, rare and legendary. Each type of weapon, predator bows, hunting bows, and warrior bows can be found in the three classes. The same goes for swords, maces or scepters and spears and long-handled blades and blunts.
The difference in classes are that regular weapons have one attribute, rare weapons have two attributes and legendary weapons have three attributes. A regular sword may have a critical hit rate, a rare sword may have a critical hit rate plus bleeding on hit, but a legendary sword may have a critical hit rate, adrenaline on hit, and poison on hit. As soon as I was able, I made every weapon I equipped legendary, including the shields and my horse. This earns you the trophy “I am a Legend” although I admit I didnt know that. I never tried for trophies because I had enough to keep me busy.
In the end, I stuck with the Barbed Longbow, a precision bow which is like a sniper weapon, the Ultima Blade (sword), the Tempest Blade (sword), The Shark Fin (long-handled blade) and the Ziedrich Shield.
Cursed Weapons
This is a completely different category of weapon; they’re rare and I don’t recommend using them. As soon as you equip one, before you even move Bayek, you’ll see that his health bar is down to one third capacity. There is nothing good about having less health before starting a fight. Cursed weapons supposedly deal more damage, but I couldn’t see it, and Bayek’s speed in his attacks dropped off. They’re not worth it. Sell them to the blacksmith.
Final Fantasy Crossover!
At one point in the game you have to solve a puzzle. Once you do, a character from Final Fantasy XV comes and gives you the Ultima Blade, the Ziedrich Shield along with a cross between a chocobo and a camel. All legendary and all cool.
The Right Tool For The Right Job
I switched out swords at times because in boss fights, one hit can take a huge amount of health from your bar. While the Ultima Blade is definitely the best in the game, the Tempest Blade gives you a bit of health every time you hit an enemy. It can prove the difference in a boss fight, which toward the end are serious. Especially if you’ve added the Curse of the Pharaohs, downloadable from the Playstation Store. Well worth it to get both DLC add-on or expansion packs. Seeing new places and fighting new enemies? Yes, please.
Stuff
Along the way, Bayek gets new outfits and the coolest is the Spaniard’s armor once you’ve fought as a replacement in a gladiatorial battle. It’s badass.
“The Spaniard, addressing the crowd asks, “Are you not entertained?”Yes, the ladies love gladiators Bayek and the Legendary Abyssal Steed, afire with the will to charge into battle anytime, anywhere
The cool never stops coming. During Bayek’s journey, he reunites with his wife Aya, also a Medjay. She’s awesome.
A Labor of Love
The Ubisoft developers put a lot of hours, study and work in on this game, and it shows. While not to scale, the world ingame is absolutely huge. I was amazed at how historically genuine the locations were. The first time I saw the Giza pyramids, I thought, back then, this is how they may really have looked. Long since plundered, they were still magnificent. More time had passed from their construction to Cleopatra’s time than from Cleopatra’s time to now, but this team knew that and yet retained and demonstrated the knowledge that even then, ancient religions and established cultures respected the old ways and tried to stop robbery and desecration. The detail in every featured landmark, I have to say, is special.
Ancient Egypt today is not well respected. Not only do people enrich themselves by digging up mummies; that’s terrible enough.
People believe that pyramids were built by extraterrestrial creatures, but not one of them can give a good reason to believe anything except that Ancient Egypt was built over ages by the people who lived there. They were brilliant and driven. Cleopatra was actually a wise ruler, but is given the image of a sex freak, a reflection of how Westerners have always viewed women. Ancient Egypt at the time of the pyramid building was lush, not desertified. The archaeological evidence proves this. They respected the dead, at least royalty, they brewed beer, baked delicious breads, cooked meat. They had medical practices that we find revolting but that were actually effective. They shaved their heads and women wore wigs because of lice; most were fastidious in upper classes, and even so, that hasn’t stopped developers from having fun with ancient aliens going back in time to change history. Duke Nukem did it in Time to Kill, and traveled back to the Old West, Medieval Germany and Ancient Rome. When fans were promised a new Duke Nukem game and didn’t get it, Croteam put a Serious Sam port from PC to the original Xbox and added new content. Where did that game begin?
The Temple of Hatshepsut.
It’s a cool level, but the game is strictly cartoonish and an arcade-based FPS.
The Temple of Hatshepsut as it could have appeared in 35 BCE. Bayek is about to ride in and kick some Roman ass.Bayek gazes at a pyramid
The base game you get is itself worth every penny and every hour you can spend on it. There are epic fights like “The Battle of the Nile”, where Aya is trying to get to Rome to stop Cleopatra from allying with Caesar. You control the ship’s speed and direction and it’s all there, even the drum for the galley slaves. I took way too much damage and kept desynchronizing, but finally learned to take out the smaller ships first, then take on the Roman dreadnought. It fired volleys in threes and as long as I held R1 to keep those on deck with shields raised, I took no damage. I did ram a smaller ship or two but learned never to let the dreadnought get near me, nor I, it. You ram it, you take damage. I covered, took the volleys, then quickly aimed catapults and after a while sank her. When you get that cut scene, it’s a really cool moment.
Small Issues
All games have contact or boundary glitches. Developers hate those because they check for them and have beta testers check for them. It can’t be avoided in any game, but this one is big, yet I found very few problems with it. A surprise is that if you get too close to the map’s edge, a black wall springs up like a grid you can’t go beyond. Because that part of the world is unknown to Bayek, it can’t be seen except in the distance. But you can’t approach it.
Very early, I was chased by Ptolemy’s soldiers. I ran for cover because there are bushes and grass you can hide in. But there was no grass and I found myself halfway underground. As the soldiers ran past, they couldn’t see me but I could kill them by repeating shots with my bow to their feet. They knew I was close, but not where. When they were dead, I couldn’t move. I couldn’t get away. Turning the camera revealed that I was inside the base of some large rocks, and the glitch was made worse by not being able to use the world map. I had to eject the disc and restart. The odds of it happening to anyone else is near zero.
Gallery of Geek
Here’s a few images, the difference of which is striking. We love surprises in long games, and we especially love rewards.
Top to bottom: we all love breasts but stalking is not cool, Bayek; a dappled sunny lane makes for a scenic ride in search of the next battle; a few dark shots I won’t explain because, spoilers: I’ll only say it involves Bayek’s Promise and some weird stuff that involves the infamous Cicaeda conspiracy theory and some anachronistic tech; at the end of it you need 50 silica to operate a final mechanism to unlock this Marvel-looking armor for Bayek which looks silly and adds no protection whatsoever. Which sucks.
Expansions
The Hidden Ones and Curse of the Pharaohs DLC
These are downloadable content (expansions) for the base game. I wasn’t really overwhelmed with “The Hidden Ones” but it was good enough for me. The real payoff comes in “Curse”, in which Aya messages Bayek that someone has summoned the dead to the living world. To the Ancient Egyptians such a thing would be a horror; unspeakable and unthinkable. But in COTP, someone does it. Enter: Bayek of Siwa, no longer a Medjay but a Hidden One, the name of the order which will precede all assassins in AC games. As soon as he gets off the ship at Thebes, he witnesses an apparition of Nefertiti beating someone down. Bayek defeats her but knows now that the message wasn’t a joke; something terrible is happening.
You can be higher than level 50 by now, but you can’t be lower. I don’t think that’s a good idea. Hit “Atlas” on the world map, go back to Lower Egypt and grind out some more XP. It’s worth it. Before leaving Lower Egypt for example, you should have handily defeated the Phylakes. Those are bounty hunters out for you. You should also have completed every event at both arenas including making it past level 20 in the horde mode. Then proceed to The Hidden Ones and complete that story. By then you’re level 51 or 52, and leveling up takes a lot longer, but you can handle most of the mayhem if you don’t let yourself get mobbed. You’re no longer fighting Greeks loyal to Ptolemy; 8 years have passed since Caesar was assassinated but Cleopatra had done the damage by then. Now Roman forts dot the map and legionaries are aware of you and will do their best to stop you.
There’s only one way to take a Roman fort unassisted: find a high perch, snipe the soldiers and set a trap on the brazier so they can’t call reinforcements. Use your longbow for distant targets, your warrior bow for the ones who rush you and a sword when they’re too close. I prefer the Shark Fin because it sets enemies on fire, but if there’s clay pots or straw or tall grass, you’ll desync fast because you’ll burn too.
The bosses in this DLC are pharoahs risen by a cursed object. Their sleep disturbed, they need Bayek to send them back. These fights are mean. You can’t let them touch you. Start off with a power attack, run in circles dodging their charges while shooting arrows at them. Fire bombs work well after your arrows run out and by then another couple of power attacks should finish them off. I used the Shark Fin for the power attack because it does a shitload of damage.
After defeating Akhenaten you visit a sunny Duat, the land of the afterlife. That’s too cool because there are missions and quests and cool enemies.
After Tutankhamun’s battle you enter a darker Duat.
You see the darkness, the glowing flowers that close as you approach, a vast underworld. Bayek, shown in the bottom shot, still has to use his power (full adrenaline meter) attacks.
Bestiary
In the first part of AC Origins, there are a number of animals that can desync Bayek. Leopards, lions, hyenas, crocodiles and hippos. Even vultures are difficult on early XP levels. But the ones I feared the most were cobras. You’ll never see them the first time before they strike. If you don’t have enough XP or your breastplate developed, two strikes desync Bayek. Later you’ll spot them when they hiss, and the warrior bow or fire bombs work best. Beware: they’re never alone.
It was when I got to COTP that I saw something I really, really really hate. I won’t tell you what else is in the Duat, but this is nightmare shit.
Called Ba, these are vultures with the heads of women. The first time I saw them I was sure they were owls but I got a closer look.
They exist in the myths of many lands. In some, they have the head and body of a woman but the wings and claws of carrion or predator birds. Most have the head of a woman and the full body of a bird. They’re called harpyx, harpies.
Well they’re here in The Valley of the Kings and in the duat and I hate them. They fly about, mumbling what sounds like part laughter and part speech. Hell. That’s creepy. Give me a sphinx, a hydra, a gorgon even; but those creepy-ass harpies are nightmare fuel. So of course I found the high scaffolding in the Valley and shot as many as I could. I had the flock thinned considerably, and by the way, if you only wound one, they will attack you. I’m like, Ew, no, get the fuck away from me!
Call it what you want, but that’s a harpy, and I happily killed the fuckin thing because they’re just wrong
A Drop of the Good Stuff
Bayek can interact very little with NPCs. Consider that most are civilians. Do not kill civilians. Even if accidental, you’ll get the warning “Medjay are supposed to protect the innocent”. From what I’ve read, you do it too many times and you’ll desync, and according to one player, that desync caused all of his fast travel points to vanish. It’s possible I guess, because to open a fast travel point Bayek has to climb it and synchronize it with Senu. But my guess is he pressed up while on the map, which cycles all the icons or locations visible or hidden. He claimed though to reload the game, and couldn’t get it working properly. If so, bravo to Ubisoft’s team for enforcing the law against mass murder.
Bayek can, however, find a woman sitting in the grass, and kneel down, and she will smile, look him lovingly in the eye then look down as if blushing.
There are cats, too. And they love Bayek. They’ll meow and stand beside his legs. Here’s the cool part. If you can get Bayek to kneel facing the cat, he will occasionally give it a stroke on the head. Freaking awesome, such attention to the little things.
I Am Not Hardcore
I played this entire game on the “Easy” difficulty setting because I’m a lightweight and not ashamed of it. Neither should anyone else be; I still had my hands full and was challenged plenty every step of the way. I can’t even imagine boss fights on Normal or nightmare mode.
I took all but a few side quests, found the stone circles, tried to get the tablets, solved papyrus puzzles, and two hundred forty hours in, I can honestly say I’m awed, I’m glad I played, and I got through a bad spell because this game is engaging, beautiful and fun.
It is not the best game I’ve ever played. It isn’t my favorite game, but it’s at least in the top three. But I’ll give it a perfect score because it’s beautiful, technically awesome, has great voice acting (John Delancey even steps in for a moment) and is well researched and a wonder to see.
Next up: I’ve ordered AC Odyssey and will load it up as soon as I get it. I can’t wait!
With the Playstation 5 now on sale, leave it to me to just be getting into the previous platform; I missed the PS3 completely and now I can’t lay my hands on one. I regret letting go of my Playstation 2, as that console has the biggest library ever. I loved that I could play original Playstation games on it and I did so often, but the fact is, the PS2 had great games that I’d love to be able to play again.
Now that I have a refurb PS4, I’ve sampled a few games, and for the most part been disappointed. A game that made me want the console in the first place, Call of Duty: World War Two was at first exciting. The graphics were there, the gameplay seemed good with the controls, and then it happened: a timed button-mashing move to hit a German soldier with a helmet or die and repeat until I got it exactly right. I hate that. Shooters should be shooters. I’m old school. I’m not hardcore. I never minded the puzzle elements in Half-Life, a PC port well done on the PS2, a great game. And I loved the RPG elements in Deus-Ex: The Conspiracy, graphics below par but engrossing in its gameplay and story, not to mention the way a player’s choices affected not just the ending but various events during the game. I may be casual gamer but I do appreciate the good stuff.
I made it past levels I didnt think I would beat in COD: WW2, like timed levels when I had to drive a jeep with clunky controls, a Sherman tank up against a Tiger, and other levels, like a spy level that required some stealth, which always makes me nervous.
Then I hit a level I couldnt beat. No matter what I did, how i approached it it, the level was lopsided and strategy was out of the question. I had to put it back in the box and I want to forget the entire game.
On a chance I came across a YouTube video where someone was playing Assassin’s Creed: Origins. The graphics alone blew me away. As an ancient Egypt buff, I knew I had to have this game. Wait! A game that gives the origin of the Assassins, with pyramids and Cleopatra?
First, I had never played an AC game before and they weren’t on my radar. So I decided I would start with this one because it tells the story of the first assassin.
The main character, who the player takes control of, is Bayek, a man who has been away from his home for a year following the death of his son, which has turned him into a vicious, efficient killer.
Bayek searches for his wife, who also quests for vengeance. It turned out, though, that justice and vengeance blur, that their enemy really consists of more than one person, and that all of Egypt and Ptolemy himself are to be contended with. He hates Ptolemy and longs for the old ways under the real pharaohs of old, when reverence to the gods and to the ruler made the world make sense.
During the first levels, I found out that leveling up depended on side quests, a first for me. Completing one gets you XP and Drachmas. Also ability points which, RPG style, you apply to a chart at will. There are three ability sections. There’s Hunter, where skills with the bow are gained, Seer, where the use of tools like firebombs are available, and Warrior, where melee combat skills are added, like a double weapon attack with two swords.
The RPG elements don’t end there. You also need to upgrade weapons because fighting at level 16 with a level 2 sword isn’t fun. And sometimes killing and looting an enemy yields a rare or legendary weapon that can also be leveled up and should be. A long handled weapon like the Shark Fin is great for use when mounted on horse or camel and will set enemies on fire. One of the shields poisons enemies on contact. It is immersive and addictive, giving layers to a great game that might otherwise have been lukewarm.
The environment is crazy. It’s a huge game, and it’s possible that you can cross into a section when you’re level 20 but the map shows that the enemies there are 35-40. Even if you can make the crossing, you don’t want to. One arrow will kill you.
The main story takes a back seat to the side quests, but I found I dreaded them without cause; you’ll never finish the game without using the side quests to learn the controls, fortify Bayek, and enjoy exploring a massive gameplay area that is beautifully rendered, from the first level on ward.
Travel can be done by horse and camel or chariot, or just plain running and swimming. Maybe the coolest mode, though, it by boat. That surprised me.
1I’m currently at level 22 with very little of the total game complete. And I’m enjoying every minute I play. I have my favorite games, but if this one holds up such quality to the end, then Assassin’s Creed: Origins will take over the top spot.
You can’t possibly sustain the constant barrage of news and breaking news, the latter of which has been glued to cable news screens for months. Weve gone through much, and it isn’t over. We need our downtime.
Among the movies I’ve suggested for staying home and staying safe, there were some good titles, something for everyone. Now I’m going to recommend something very different: videogames. They’ve been around for decades, have an interesting history and evolution, and everyone can play.
I’m not a hardcore gamer. I’m not a purist and I’m not cut out for multiplayer online games. I’m just a casual gamer with a list of favorites and a list of games that weren’t worth their price because they were shitty or too hard.
I also have a wish list, now that I’ve acquired a PS4 that has abilities I never imagined in 1999.
That was the year I discovered the original Playstation and fell in love. I found not only that I loved games but that it was the one way I could reach my son, have fun and bond with him. And that was priceless.
I bought my own Playstation in January of 2000. I started with two games, “Duke Nukem: Time To Kill” and “WCW Mayhem” and spent hours after work being sucked into the gaming world.
While the Duke Nukem game remains one of my favorites, I played other games that I loved every bit as much. Looking back, the graphics were stunning to me, the audio and cut scenes immersive, sucking me into their world of fantasy and adventure. I eschewed puzzles in games but found that platform games always had them. Mostly, I was okay until I got to jumping puzzles. My timing was just not good enough and I’d get hung up. On weekends when my son visited, he would help.
I discovered “Medal of Honor” and, being a WWII buff, loved it. I got hung up a lot as the first-person shooter was new to me and I died a lot. But it was the start of something big, a genre that continued until “Airborne” and “Vanguard” for Playstation 2. Sadly the series has ended, but some of the original creators defected and gave us the first “Call of Duty,” a franchise spanning WW2 games to modern warfare. I thought that with “Medal of Honor: Underground” was the pinnacle of the series because, glitches and all, the ambience gave the player a sense of firefights happening in the distance, especially in the Paris levels. It turned, in later levels, to a freaky, scary thing, as a resistance fighter entered Himmler’s prized Wewelsberg castle. But still, great stuff.
I had my try at “Driver 2” and found it unusual; it was undeniably too hard, all night driving was eerie, and the game was chock-full of glitches that made it more creepy. Never did beat that game.
Then there was Madden football and back then it was more fun than it is now. My son loved the Spyro games and the one I loved the most, my favorite game of all time, came out in the summer of 2000: “Chrono Cross”, a follow-up to Super Nintendo’s “Chrono Trigger.” It was easily a hundred-hour game for anyone’s first RPG game, and it had a score that no video game can ever equal. Players could rove the world with two other characters in their party, but the characters which could be recruited were unusually high; 40 of them. Depending on decisions during play or other members recruited, some would be unavailable for recruitment. Everything I did had an affect on where and with whom I would go next. Some characters were almost useless in the traditional turn-based battles (you took a turn and attacked, healed your party or defended) and the CPU took its turn with enemies). Sometimes boss fights weren’t fair at all. A boss is a major character, and you will meet several in the course of a game, and they’re there to beat the snot out of you. They’re also kinda pissed that you’ve made it so far, and the fights are usually drawn-out affairs that test your patience and your nerves. You may, in some Role Playing Games (RPGs) be forced to retreat, fight smaller enemies to gain hit points (the number which defines how much punishment you can take before you get a “Game Over” screen. Most games also give you MP or magic power, as spell casting is a powerful way to battle. The game had 11 possible endings and you could replay it, making different choices, recruiting different characters, and face new enemies and new places. It was almost depressing when I finally finished it.
“Silent Hill” is a title you know as a movie, but first it was a game, and holy crap! Jump scares, boss fights and the urgency to get your character’s daughter back in a town full of demons and zombies. A definite puzzle game, people needed guides to help them, but one type of monster that looked like shadow children carried knives and would laugh while they attacked Harry Mason, who just wanted his daughter back, drew criticism from fans who found them too intense, so Konami never used them again. Harry and his daughter were supposed to be going to the resort town of Silent Hill for vacation. Harry awakes after a traffic accident to find his daughter missing and the town profoundly changed into a nightmare. A classic, worthy game.
“Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver” was stellar. A cursed Raziel was turned into a vampire, made to serve Kain, who gets jealous when he grows bat wings, a stage of evolution Kain doesn’t have. Kain rips off Raziel’s wings and orders him thrown into a pit to hell. A powerful eldritch creature Raziel can’t see but only hear promises to help him exact his revenge if he can eliminate enough of the vampires and gain powers along the way, powers Kain never had. There are some good puzzles, most of which have to be solved in order to enter new areas, and coolest of all, Raziel can’t die. If he loses enough energy in the physical world, he goes to the spirit realm and can consume the souls of the damned. Once his energy is restored, he can go back to his physical form. Good graphics for a Playstation original and a classic game.
Of course, Playstation had its share of duds. Among the most hated in the console’s library were games such as “Powerboat Racing”, “Escape ODT (or die trying)”, “Spot Goes To Hollywood” Spot being the character that was the red spot from 7-up cans, but I dare you to try to get past the first level without having your controller thrown across the room by some demon you didn’t know lived inside you. And let us not forget “Teletubbies”, a game so devoid of anything to do that even kids hated it. It was so derided that some gamers modified the code and turned it into a first-person shooter, allowing the player to shoot the dumbass fuckers. Or that’s what I read. I certainly didn’t.
On the end of its run, Playstation began accomodating budget games like “Largo Winch.// Commando Sar” which the now-defunct Playstation Magazine reviewed as “www.stupidname. com”. I’d like to move on now.
Along the way, there were stellar games, and you can still buy some of them. Games like “Syphon Filter” and the original “Resident Evil,” the one and only. There were a lot of cart racers, and one even featuring Disney characters. “Bogey Dead Six” was a fighter jet game that was good, but freaking hard, and “Ms. Pac-man was incredible, a masterpiece.
PLAYSTATION 2
There’s no way I can go through all the best titles in the PS2’s massive library. There are so many games worthy of owning, and all have drawbacks and goodies. Yet they’re classics, and it’s a shame they won’t be ported or remade for PS4. As far as the PS5 is concerned, the rumored price will turn out to be prohibitive to most gamers.
Playstation2 had a magical run. At first, designers didn’t grasp its potential and it led to games promised by developers being dropped or defecting to the Xbox. In those cases, production seemed hurried and reviews weren’t that great. When the first Madden game, “Red Faction” and others hit the shelves, suddenly there was a race on. PC games like “Half-Life” were ported from PC, and original updates to WWF/WWE games blew the Xbox version out of the water. Personally, my favorite PS2 games ranged from shooters to platformers to slash-and-hackers like “Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance” to the original “Kingdom Hearts” which was an RPG melding of Square Characters (Final Fantasy) and Disney characters and worlds. The latter was a masterpiece and a true labor of love. With a great score, cutscene ecstasy and reasons to revisit every world several times as different features become available, and so many cool and loveable Disney characters in the game, the original is a classic that can’t be touched. The sequel that I played took a hit in difficulty and failure led to replaying the same levels again and again until my thumbs felt as if they’d fall off. It kept me from going any further and getting into the story. I hated it.
NASCAR and Formula One, Gran Turismo and Need For Speed all had great games on the console.
“Silent Hill 2” made history as one of the most consistently voted “scariest game ever” titles, and it was. The franchise had a good run on PS2 and stories sometimes meld and sometimes not. The second game doesn’t take you to any of the locations of the first game but you end up close to those sections. “Silent Hill 3” sees the death of Harry Mason, the first game’s protagonist, and his daughter gets to go to parts of town from the first game as well as a superbly creepy shopping mall. I’m not afraid of much, but being inside a mall with no other people in it and no power is one of them. Urbex YouTubers do this shit, and they’re crazy. Abandoned malls are the stuff of nightmares. I played SH 2 and 3 and wish I could have played the others, as each developed its own brand of creepiness. I missed so much when I got sick.
Anyway, COVID-19 is spiking. Its because people aren’t staying home enough, they’re taking foolish chances, even protesting the wearing of masks; surely the height of stupidity and recklessness. If you’re bored, order up a PS1, PS2 or PS4, and lose yourself in stories you’ll never forget.
Memoirs of an American Asshole 