An oldie, but a goodie (x2). Just thought I’d share two Winning Eleven/Pro Evolution Soccer montages I made many, many years ago when Winning Eleven was king. The resolution may be a bit grainy but it was the early 2000s and capture equipment wasn’t that great. Oh, the days of importing Japanese football games and the PS2 ‘swap trick’!
Hope you enjoy them!
Lavan
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
GTA: Vice City – Amazing....but still not as good as San Andreas
I posted just over a month ago that I was going through Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for the second time (on the PC) as it was the only GTA game that I hadn’t completed multiple times and didn’t have that fond memories for. As I stated in my post, one of the reasons I didn’t dig it that much the first time around was that I was playing it during a particularly rough time in my personal life. No such problems this time and I have to say I enjoyed the hell out of it. Including side missions Steam had me clocked in at 18 hours to complete it. All the positives I mentioned previously (mission variation, the environments, the art/aesthetic) still hold but I think I understated just how fucking incredible the soundtrack is. Even half-way through the game I was still hearing songs I hadn’t yet heard or had forgot were on the soundtrack, and unlike many other similar open world games (True Crime, Saints Row, other GTAs), there wasn’t a single station that I disliked. Much like the music in San Andreas, the tunes in Vice City really solidify the time period in your mind. Incredible stuff.
I also really enjoyed some of the later missions especially the mission entitled G-Spotlight (see below) where you have to ride a motorcycle through and across buildings.
But, despite having a hell of a time, I still think it ranks well behind GTA IV, The Lost and Damned, Ballad of Gay Tony, and San Andreas because of the narrative and in particular, the massive gap in the story towards the end of the game. Like every other modern GTA game you progress through the main narrative mission by mission. Vice City differs slightly in that there is a point in the story where the primary narrative comes to a dead stop and you’re not able to progress until you complete a set number of side mission threads. While these threads are entertaining (the G-Spotlight mission is in the Candy Suxx side mission thread) they don’t really add much to the major narrative and it takes a good 4-5 hours to finish these before the main narrative re-starts. By that time all story momentum has been lost and the resumption of the main narrative thread just consists of two missions (a very short penultimate mission and an incredibly annoying Scarface-Say-Hello-To-My-Little-Friend inspired final mission) and then you’re done. The big surprise/twist is that your buddy Lance Vance has sold you out but the emotional impact of that is lost because you haven’t seen the guy for the past 5 hours and he’s also a bit of a dick anyway.
It’s all a bit of a disappointment.
GTA IV definitely has it’s issues as I feel the narrative goes on for a few hours too long in the final third but it picks up momentum with the ‘Mr and Mrs Bellic” mission where either your cousin Roman gets gunned down on his wedding day or his bride does. This kicks things up into high gear for the finishing straight and you have a much greater attachment to Roman than you do to Lance.
I felt the narratives in both TLAD and BOGT were paced excellently and I loved everything about San Andreas.
Still, despite my gripes, I enjoyed the hell out of Vice City and I definitely think it's worth another play through if you haven't visited the city in a while.
Lavan
I also really enjoyed some of the later missions especially the mission entitled G-Spotlight (see below) where you have to ride a motorcycle through and across buildings.
But, despite having a hell of a time, I still think it ranks well behind GTA IV, The Lost and Damned, Ballad of Gay Tony, and San Andreas because of the narrative and in particular, the massive gap in the story towards the end of the game. Like every other modern GTA game you progress through the main narrative mission by mission. Vice City differs slightly in that there is a point in the story where the primary narrative comes to a dead stop and you’re not able to progress until you complete a set number of side mission threads. While these threads are entertaining (the G-Spotlight mission is in the Candy Suxx side mission thread) they don’t really add much to the major narrative and it takes a good 4-5 hours to finish these before the main narrative re-starts. By that time all story momentum has been lost and the resumption of the main narrative thread just consists of two missions (a very short penultimate mission and an incredibly annoying Scarface-Say-Hello-To-My-Little-Friend inspired final mission) and then you’re done. The big surprise/twist is that your buddy Lance Vance has sold you out but the emotional impact of that is lost because you haven’t seen the guy for the past 5 hours and he’s also a bit of a dick anyway.
It’s all a bit of a disappointment.
GTA IV definitely has it’s issues as I feel the narrative goes on for a few hours too long in the final third but it picks up momentum with the ‘Mr and Mrs Bellic” mission where either your cousin Roman gets gunned down on his wedding day or his bride does. This kicks things up into high gear for the finishing straight and you have a much greater attachment to Roman than you do to Lance.
I felt the narratives in both TLAD and BOGT were paced excellently and I loved everything about San Andreas.
Still, despite my gripes, I enjoyed the hell out of Vice City and I definitely think it's worth another play through if you haven't visited the city in a while.
Lavan
Dead End Thrills
Quick note about an incredible website I stumbled upon - Dead End Thrills - a website made by games journalist Duncan Harris. The website consists of his ever-growing portfolio of absolutely stunning videogame photography – basically he captures incredible, jaw-dropping screenshots of videogames. The images aren’t just incredible because of the graphical fidelity and the visual tweaks he’s made to them, they’re special because of the moments he’s captured. Check out the link and if you don’t find your next desktop wallpaper there then there’s something wrong with you!
Lavan
Lavan
Friday, December 2, 2011
Sideway: New York
As we move into the busy season of gaming I’ve also been super busy with work. Fortunately, I've managed to steer clear of the behemoth Skyrim – not because I’m not interested in it, on the contrary, it's because I’m fairly certain that’s all I’d play for the next 2 months at the expense of all the other great games coming out right now!
What I have been playing is a nice mix of some old school games, some mainstream newer stuff and a few neat independent gaming titles, one of which is a very neat side-scrolling platformer named Sideway: New York for the PC.
I picked up Sideway off Steam after really being struck by the graffiti-inspired art style. You play the game as ‘Nox’ a graffiti artist who has been turned into a piece of 2D graffiti by his nemesis and it’s your job to work your way through New York to rescue your friends. Developer Playbrain markets the game as a ‘2D Platformer in a 3D World’ and while that seems like an odd slogan it actually describes it perfectly. The environments are all 3D areas but since you’re a 2D sprite/piece of graffiti you can only get around the environment by moving along the flat surfaces. The entire conceit has mostly aesthetic ramifications rather than gameplay ones but it’s enjoyable nonetheless.
The controls are snappy and along with the usually 2D platforming tropes such as jumping attacks you can also do spray-attacks, kicks and also use your spray can to draw-in new platforms (but only in certain designated areas). It’s definitely not going to challenge the likes of the 2D Mario games but I found it a lot of fun and at only $10 it’s worth checking out for the art-style alone. You can download the Sideway: New York demo on Steam and the Playstation Network.
Lavan
What I have been playing is a nice mix of some old school games, some mainstream newer stuff and a few neat independent gaming titles, one of which is a very neat side-scrolling platformer named Sideway: New York for the PC.
I picked up Sideway off Steam after really being struck by the graffiti-inspired art style. You play the game as ‘Nox’ a graffiti artist who has been turned into a piece of 2D graffiti by his nemesis and it’s your job to work your way through New York to rescue your friends. Developer Playbrain markets the game as a ‘2D Platformer in a 3D World’ and while that seems like an odd slogan it actually describes it perfectly. The environments are all 3D areas but since you’re a 2D sprite/piece of graffiti you can only get around the environment by moving along the flat surfaces. The entire conceit has mostly aesthetic ramifications rather than gameplay ones but it’s enjoyable nonetheless.
The controls are snappy and along with the usually 2D platforming tropes such as jumping attacks you can also do spray-attacks, kicks and also use your spray can to draw-in new platforms (but only in certain designated areas). It’s definitely not going to challenge the likes of the 2D Mario games but I found it a lot of fun and at only $10 it’s worth checking out for the art-style alone. You can download the Sideway: New York demo on Steam and the Playstation Network.
Lavan
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