Posted by Billy Posted on 28 September, 2026 at 5:38PM 0 0
So, I'm one of the six people that had a Wii U when it was relevant. I actually knew that it wasn't just a tablet add-on to the Wii! Nintendo had a lot of interesting ideas going on with the Wii U, including things like asymmetric multiplayer, using the tablet as a second gameplay screen (for things like a map). But the tablet also allowed for gyro controls. First and third person shooters on consoles have always had this issue where the precision just always wasn't there compared to on PC, where you are using a mouse. They probably weren't the first, but Nintendo realized they could bridge the gap at least a little using those gyro controls. They also Nintendo'd it up and made the goal less about killing people and more about territory control.
Posted by Billy Posted on 26 December, 2025 at 11:18PM 0 0
Daiktana is not a first person shooter. Okay, most of the game takes place in first person and involves you shooting stuff. But the intention was clearly to be more of an action adventure game that used FPS as its 'action', as opposed to a strictly action focused game like Doom or Quake. This is the reason for the much-maligned companion characters, why the greater emphasis on story and exploration, why the RPG style stats and leveling up system. When you go into the game with this expectation, you will find yourself having a better time.
That isn't to say there isn't still flaws, oh far from it. I can see why the game earned it's poor reputation, but these days I think the reception would be more 'mixed' than 'poor'. For one thing, it was pretty buggy out of the gate, though that was mostly fixed with patches. Managing the AI partners can be frustrating at times, requiring you to issue commands with keyboard keys or a menu. Even then, sometimes they inexplicably won't
Posted by Billy Posted on 20 November, 2020 at 7:20PM 1 0
I have been playing Crazy Taxi on and off for twenty years. Just like any good arcade style game, it keeps me coming back. Also just like any good arcade game, I've never really mastered it. Sega always excelled at arcade games, and Crazy Taxi is one of the best of the lot. It first came home to the Dreamcast console. Given that I had a Dreamcast at the time, Crazy Taxi was an obvious purchase for me, and is still my preferred version of the game.
When it comes to genres, Crazy Taxi’s is hard to nail down. I wouldn’t really call it a racing game, but you are driving a car. You're a cabbie, and your goal is to pick up passengers, and drop them off as quick as you can, by any means possible. Your are timed, and when time runs out, the game is over. In addition, each passenger has a set time limit for getting them to their destination. You can earn more overall time by getting them to their destination faster than the limit. So the gameplay is a constant cycle of picking up a passenger, driving them to their destination, usually causing mayhem along the way, dropping them off, looking for a new passenger, and repeat. Wikipedia calls it a “score attack racing game”, which I suppose is fair enough.
Posted by Billy Posted on 7 September, 2017 at 9:39PM 1 0
One word. Doom. It's a simple name that can invoke a lot of things. Deathmatch, modding, programming. Doom is and was a lot of things to a lot of people. It's also known for being ported to everything. Why is this the case? Why Doom and not its older brother Wolfenstein 3D? I have compiled a list of six reasons why I think that's the case, based on my own knowledge of Doom and programming in general.
It's open source
This one is probably the most obvious, but it's worth mentioning. In 1997, the source code to Doom was released. Originally intended to be accompanied by a book, it was eventually released standalone. Why is this important? It means that people can work with the original code without reverse engineering it. Reverse engineering the Doom executable actually got pretty far in the early days of Doom modding. However, after the source was released,
Posted by Billy Posted on 16 April, 2017 at 7:03PM 1 0
I'm getting really tired of Nintendo, for one big reason: I can't buy any of their products.
I'm sure you remember the buzz around the launch of the Wii. The Wii was huge, everyone was talking about it, and it was a giant success for Nintendo. At the the time, I really wanted one, but I wasn't able to get one until a couple years after launch. "Not a big deal", I thought, "it was a huge seller, so it makes sense that stores couldn't keep it in stock." Now, I'm not sure if this was actually the case, or it was intentional under stocking by Nintendo, but Nintendo seems to have taken this idea and run with it in later years.
Posted by Billy Posted on 22 October, 2016 at 12:43AM 1 0
Some games fall into a category I call “mystical”. These games inspire the imagination and there seems to be more to the world than what you can see at face value. One of exemplary game series are that of the character Rayman. Just look at Rayman himself, he has no arms or legs, so his body parts just float! When I first played the demo for the Dreamcast version of Rayman 2 at nine years old, I knew it was something special. Though strangely, I didn’t really play Rayman 2 until this year. Perhaps it’s because when I rented Rayman 1 many years ago, I was put off by the crushing difficulty. Thankfully that’s not the case with the second one.
Posted by Billy Posted on 21 September, 2016 at 08:18AM 1 0
Doom is one of the most iconic games ever made, the forerunner of all FPS. Equally iconic, is its soundtrack. A mix of thrash metal and suspenseful tones, the soundtrack really set the mood for the game. Probably the most iconic of those songs (we're all three levels of iconic now), the song to the very first level: E1M1. Standing for Episode 1 Map 1, this was every Doom player's first taste of the action. The track itself is actually called "At Doom's Gate", which is a fitting name since the first level is really the entryway into the game. (The first level of Doom 2 is called Entryway, as it turns out). The song itself is very evocative of the map it represents; it's a very quick and action packed song. Keys and environmental tricks like lifts (barring secrets) aren't introduced until the second level. For E1M1 it's just run 'n' shoot. To celebrate this track, we've compiled a list of covers of this song, everything from comedy, to intriguing, to full on headbanging enjoyment. Catch 'em after the break.
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