It's been a helluva year, fellas. From meager beginnings, missed updates, support from friends and a glorious rise.
What's to come in the year ahead? I dunno, but I'll tell you what's to come next paragraph!
Ladies, Gentlemen, and ladies dressed like men, I proudly present a one year anniversary article; Half-Life 2.
This site is getting a little bit too PC-loving. Come on guys, did we really need two Descent articles in a row? (The answer is obviously yes, but it's a rhetorical question.) What about the handheld love? What about... Metroid II: The Return of Samus.
In the far-flung futuristic year 20X5, the surprisingly not male Samus Aran is dispatched to perform a mass genocide on planet SR388, killing off every living creature she comes across. It is up to you stop this maniac at once make sure she performs her duties with the utmost precision!
Metroid II: The Return of Samus is an often overlooked game by Metroid fans, probably due to it's being nestled between the first game, and what is arguably the greatest side scrolling action game ever, Super Metroid. But Metroid II definitely does Metroid like no other Metroid does Metroid.
Okay so less strategy guide more review this time.
Made in 1994 by Parallax Software and Interplay Descent was a rather unique FPS game that spawned several sequels and expansion packs. It features movement with six degrees of freedom in a zero gravity setting.
"The body is but a vessel for the soul, a puppet which bends to the soul's tyranny. And lo, the body is not eternal, for it must feed on the flesh of others, lest it return to the dust from whence it came.Therefore must the soul deceive, despise and murder men."
This here is just about my favourite game of all time. I mean, I'm not very good at picking favourites but this is probably it. That said, I'm well aware of the fact that this game isn't for everyone and so for those of you who haven't played it I'm going to try to give you a good idea of whether or not it's worth hunting down/downloading.
Released by Squaresoft in 2000 for the Playstation Vagrant Story is a game unlike many others. It's essentially a dungeon crawler with a unusually complex combat system. This is backed with a well told story with top notch presentation and great audio and visuals. Whether or not you appreciate (or even understand) the combat system will determine if you find the game to be a tedious chore or a rewarding challenge so I'm going to go into a fair bit of detail on it but first! Let's talk about the rest of it.
Ahhh the grand concept of exploration! One of my favourite gameplay elements ever.
And why shouldn't it be? Since time immemorial we as humans have always been skirting the boundary of the known to worlds beyond! This drive has not been lost to us, despite having our own world nearly completely charted and figured out. The last frontier on our world would be that of the ocean deep, where the water pressure is so unforgiveably powerful that it takes the best of engineering and grit to delve to that depth. I'm still waiting on a game that fairly realistically involves exploring deep oceans.
Until then, I'll keep playing space exploration games.
Aww yeah, now we're talkin'. No more of this mix of good and bad stuff, get ready for a big ol' gush.
God damn it.
So after Castlevania: Symphony of the Night released, the world was amazed. THIS was a great game. An 'instant classic', to quote an over-used phrase. So naturally, it was time to see if Konami could replicate that success!
....Half a decade later, on a much less powerful system. The Gameboy Advance? A handheld typically associated with kids? Make a game with blood, demons and dark tones on that platform? Makes perfect sense!
Well, in retrospect, yeah, it kinda does. Metroid F
Oh nostalgia, how you twist opinions.
Of course, given the subject of what I generally write about, naturally there's quite a lot of nostalgia blur going on. God, look at articles for Contra III and pretty much any Genesis game. Sheesh. What the fuck is with me and old games.
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