DAY 205 / GAME 205 Flow

DAY 205 / GAME 205

Flow

      Before Journey and before Flower, That Game Company created one of the first major 'art' games; Flow.

         Flow, which was a rebuilt version of a Flash web-browser game by the same name, is like watching life as it exists under a microscope.  The game itself is simple.  Designed to simply provoke an emotional response instead of providing the player with a finite goal, playing Flow creates an amazing sense of calm that comes with floating around and enjoying the simple world around you.

         In Flow, you control what appears to be a tiny microorganism.  You float around suspended in a fluid world, tiny flecks of matter drifting around you.  Just as it is when viewing through a microscope, your depth of field is so shallow that your playing field is a paper-thin 2D area.  You can get a glimpse of the fore and background, but they are extremely out of focus, really solidifying that microscopic feel.  You discover quickly that touching certain items will send you further and further into the background as you make your way through the world.  You also discover that you can 'eat' certain other microorganisms.  And as you do that, you grow in both size and beauty.  Eventually swimming about as a magnificent glowing string of art.

         In Flow there is no ending, no way to 'win' and no way to 'lose' and although it doesn't follow suit with our typical idea of a game in the end it accomplished a lot of the same things.  It's fantastic, relaxing and interactive.  Unlike some 'art games' Flow requires your input and with that feels like a proper videogame experience.  I've put way more hours into Flow that you'd think is natural, but it really is just a beautiful and unique experience.  And considering the price, (about 5$) it's well worth checking out if you own a PlayStation 3, PSP or PlayStation 4. 

DAY 204 / GAME 204 Airforce Delta

DAY 204 / GAME 204

Airforce Delta

      Airforce Delta is one of only two flight sims I've ever purchased.  This excludes games like Descent and X-Wing and even then, I wouldn't entirely consider this to be a real flight simulator but more of an arcade flight combat game.  Nevertheless, you do get to fly a plane and that's what counts.  Not just one plane either, over the course of the game you get access to a huge list of aircraft.  I'm pretty sure Konami supplied me with almost every single jet fighter I've ever wanted in a videogame.  Everything from the A-10 Warthog, to the X-29, the F-4 Phantom and the F14 Tomcat.  

       Airforce Delta had a very Konami feel to it.  The menus and sound FX all resembled those I'd seen and heard in Metal Gear Solid.  The action-oriented arcade simulator pacing and layout of the levels felt somewhat familiar as well.  
      There was a wide range of different kinds of levels to work through as you take control of a hired mercenary, earning cash for more planes, to shoot more stuff for more cash for more planes.  In real Konami style, Airforce Delta has you flying around getting into dogfights, running escort missions and taking out ground forces.  Airforce Delta was also great at the time to me because so few flight combat games included any ground detail.  But in this game, there were all kinds of structures for you to buzz with your jet, simply for the fun of testing your skill.
       Reminds me of a time when my brother and I rented Ace Combat for the PS1 and we played a game between the two of us where we would dive at the ground in a kind of game of chicken.  Whoever pulled up last won.  Only my brother yanked the controller out of the port on me just before I was going to hit the ground.  Back when you had to actually plug your controller in to the console.  Good times were had.

       The ground combat was always more exciting than simply chasing another bird's tail.  But on top of it all, in the later levels Konami included combat that had you flying inside of a mountain.  A few enemy bases were accessible through a launch bay on the side of a mountain, allowing you to fly into the narrow entrance, taking out the base and flying out the other side.  It was like a mini-death star run from Return of the Jedi, simply amazing.  

        I haven't played many other action flight sims in my gaming career.  Ace Combat, AH-3 Thunderstrike and Airforce Delta are pretty much it.  Which is kind of surprising considering how many are out there and how much I love planes.  Then again, story is key with me and with the exception of racing, I really favor games that feature strong characters and interesting narratives.  Which is not something you typically find in most flight combat games.
         Or maybe it's simply because I broke that joystick back in the 90's and never replaced it..

DAY 203 / GAME 203 Herzog Zwei

DAY 203 / GAME 203

Herzog Zwei

      I was never very good at Real Time Strategy games, but my Uncle had this one game for his Sega Genesis that I absolutely loved to play back in the day when we used to visit.  

    Herzog Zwei was nice because it really wasn't too complicated.  It was like playing Checkers instead of Chess.  Which is an especially potent comparison for myself since I never had the patience for Chess growing up, but loved me some Checkers.

     The goal in Herzog Zwei was to take over all the bases on the map.  Basically, it was a two player game in which you either play against the computer A.I., or another human player.  Though, the computer was pretty predictable at times and you could actually confuse the hell out of it; throwing it into a tantrum where it kinda freaked out, transforming back-and-forth and going in circles.  At which point you would laugh at the screen and say 'stupid computer', back at a time in which we tended to view computers are clunky and kinda dumb compared to today's smartphones and high-end consoles.

     For me though, Herzog Zwei was only partly about the strategy and almost completely about the idea that you controlled a giant transforming mech that can drop armaments across various landscapes as well as shoot to defend and attack opposing forces.  It really felt a bit like Robotech; with a similarly designed mech and F-14 tomcat style airplane mode.   Which I loved at the time.
     Gameplay was fun of course.  It was simple, if you understood the menus.  Order up different supports, (troops, tanks, hovercraft, turrets) and transport them to a base you want to take over.  Different terrain calls for different kinds of supports and each one can be programmed for different actions:  Defend, circle, attack, if I remember correctly..

           Herzog Zwei is another one of these old Genesis games I would have never heard of had my Uncle not owned a copy.  What with his modded Genesis and imported cartridges.  This was a fun little game pick up and play quick considering it's an RTS.  It's one of many old Genesis games I wish I still had a copy of.  Maybe someone can point me the way to a good emulator resource, since I'm really out of touch with those over the past decade.  That and I think I'm going to give AirMech a try when I get home today.  Apparently it's a new game that is basically an exact ripoff of Herzog Zwei, in all the best ways.

    

DAY 202 / GAME 202 Max Payne

DAY 202 / GAME 202

Max Payne

      In the wake of The Matrix there was an increased presence of blood opera, John Woo, slow motion action sequences and bullet-time.  At least, it seemed that way to me.  And although Max Payne had begun development long before The Matrix was released in theaters, the bullet-time game mechanics and the heavy John Woo gun-ballet influence clearly took footing from the film.  Not that any of this is a bad thing in the slightest.  In the end, Max Payne was one of the greatest new action games to hit the PC in a long time and easily set the bar for what a third-person shooter could really be.  Max Payne was stylish and unique and offered up a third-person game that incorporated mouse and keyboard aiming controls plus a slow-motion action system for gloriously accurate headshots.

       Max Payne was a gritty cop drama about an NYPD officer who ends up tightly wound into a somewhat complex plot that includes warring mob families, a government soldier enhancing drug program and a big pharma company that turned it into a street drug.  Max's wife ends up discovering Aesir's big secret, who in turn kills her and her newborn daughter, covering it up as a random attack by some drug addicts.  Of course, this sends Max into a spiral of revenge as he discovers the truth behind his family's death and the Aesir corperation and lays waste to everything in between.


       Max Payne's big draw was the shooting mechanics.  The slow-motion gunplay combined with dramatic dives across screen meant each encounter allowed you to take your time and make each shot count.  Of course, the game was still difficult regardless of this seemingly game-breaking feature.  I can't even remember if I managed to beat this game without using cheat codes or not, but I do remember it being a tough game to beat.  
           Of course, gameplay wasn't everything.  Max Payne features a pretty rich story which pushes forward with the help of noir voiceovers and these fantastic comic panels that feature live actors photographed and photoshopped to resemble in-game characters.  Sometimes cutscenes like these are more timeless than pushing them as real-time interstitials that may age poorly depending on the power of the engine at the time.

       I really loved what Max Payne accomplished at the time.  There really wasn't much like it and at a time where I was trying to absorb anything with a John Woo feel to it, this really hit home with me.  Max Payne eventually saw two sequels; one shortly after this release, and one that came out about a year or two ago.  Which I own, but still haven't tried out yet.  They even recently made a live action movie out of the first game, which I actually quite liked since they managed to really capture the look and feel of the world from the game.  

DAY 201 / GAME 201 Wipeout HD/ Fury

DAY 201 / GAME 201

Wipeout HD/ Fury

      The Wipeout series of games have always been a surefire hit with me.  Ever since I fell in love with WipEout XL for the PlayStation 1 in the 90's I've yet to find another future racer that comes close to matching the style, atmosphere and super-solid gameplay.

       Wipeout HD was both an early release for the PlayStation 3 and one of the first big games available on PlayStation's online store.  In fact, Wipeout HD was only available as downloadable title, which I found somewhat surprising at the time since it's such a flagship game for the Sony consoles.  Not to mention, on top of it all Sony was only charging a paltry sum of $20.  A price that is more and more common now in the age of indie gaming and digital distribution, but at the time made little sense for a AAA title.  In fact, being such a huge fan of the Wipeout series, I would have gladly paid full price if it were available on disc.

My own in-game export

      Wipeout HD encompassed everything that was incredible about series.  On top of which it it managed to one of the most beautiful games available on the system.  It features sharp, clean graphics and silky smooth framerates.  It's quick and responsive and features an absolutely fantastic soundtrack; as the series always has since it's first release featuring bands like Chemical Brothers and Prodigy.  Wipeout HD, like it's predecessors, is also beautifully delivered with an amazing sense of design style.  All the logos, menus, ships and fictional ads feature some of the most fantastically sharp and modern designs in a fictional race setting ever conceived.
       Wipeout HD also featured one of the most fantastic in-game photo modes available to date.  It beats out PGR4 and Forza (Well, maybe not Forza 5) for some of the most fantastic second-pass rendering options, creating some of the best looking screenshots of all time.  It comes very close to creating renders that looks like miniature set pieces with it's brilliantly rendered out-of-focus areas and lighting reproduction.  Not to mention, the game saves the files in JPG format straight to the PS3 hard drive, allowing you to copy them onto a memory stick and do with them what you wish.

another of my own in-game photo exports

        To top it all off, as if Wipeout HD wasn't enough, Liverpool Studios and Sony also released a downloadable add-on, Wipeout HD Fury.  Which added additional ships, tracks and race modes.  It really was that perfect second helping of the series that kept me coming back after I figured I had exhausted it.   
          Liverpool Studios and Sony always make a surefire hit with this series and I can only hope that they announce very shortly a brand new Wipeout for the PlayStation 4 as they have with the PS2, PSP, PS3 and the PS Vita.  I feel as if it is pretty much guaranteed and I'll be very happy to own a PlayStation 4 when they do.

DAY 200 / GAME 200 Uncharted 2

DAY 200 / GAME 200

Uncharted 2

      Before Naughty Dog created the groundbreaking (and heartbreaking) Last of Us, they worked on a game series nearly as fantastic and considerably more lighthearted.  I for some reason skipped out on the first Uncharted game when it came out, but after the amazing response Uncharted 2 received I decided to put it off no longer.  

      Uncharted is what happens when you essentially reboot Tomb Raider and turn Lara Croft back into a guy.  That in itself would have detracted my interest from the series if developer Naughty Dog wasn't so talented at creating incredible characters and fantastic stories.  In the end though, Uncharted 2 ends up being very much it's own piece and at that a much stronger game from pretty much every angle.  Everything from the shooting mechanics to the accuracy in which you climb about, the strength of the game engine's rendering abilities and the incredible cinematics.  Uncharted 2 had really superseded the Tomb Raider franchise.  Not that I should be comparing the two per se, but I did actually end up playing Uncharted 2 sandwiched between Tomb Raider: Legends and Tomb Raider: Underworld.  

     Uncharted 2 is just one of these game that sums up what video games are currently capable of.  If you wanted to take someone from the 90's who hasn't seen a videogame for 25 years and wanted to show them what games are like now, this is what you would show them.  It's tight, perfected and maintains that cinematic feel that we've been trying to achieve for so often in games for decades.  Landscapes stretch out to the edge of the horizon, elemental effects render as they would in real life, characters move with the fluidity of real life.  Uncharted 2 is a real accomplishment.

        Of course, Uncharted 2 looking amazing is just half of it.  What Naughty Dog does so well is very evident in this series, because by the end of the game you have become very invested in the characters and the relationships that developed along the way.  Uncharted 2 could have just as easily been a beautiful but shallow game, but instead it will maintain a place in gaming history with some of the greatest video game narratives and characters of all time.  Of course, I'm sure everyone who's reading this already knows how great Uncharted is, and for those that don't it's about time you made a place for it in your life.

DAY 199 / GAME 199 MDK 2

DAY 199 / GAME 199

MDK 2

      It seemed like all the best new games were coming to the Dreamcast just after I had purchased it.  Of course, it was the first console to come out of the 6th generation of hardware and with that almost a year ahead of anyone else.  So developers more that took advantage of it and I got to play games like Metropolis Street Racer, Crazy Taxi, Virtual On, Soul Caliber, Resident Evil: Code Veronica and of course MDK 2.
         MDK 2 was the sequel to the obscure Shiny title from a few years earlier.  Though developed by Bioware this time around, it still manages to keep up the dark humor and fantastic surrealism as you now control Kurt Hectic as well as the Doc and Max.  The robotic, six-legged, cigar smoking, gun toting, jet packing dog.

       MDK 2 ended up being one of my favorite games to come out of the Dreamcast.  It had a ton of 'wow' moments where you could be up in a tower above some huge future city with hovercars flying this way and that and draw distances that were seemingly non-existent.  (As short draw-distances and fog were quite common in 5th gen console games.)  Curved Surface rendering and other ways to fake high-polygon count were available and lighting and texturing was vastly improved over the old game.  The result was a gorgeous looking game that featured fantastic looking alien creatures and bizarre landscapes that graced your retinas.


       MDK 2 not only cleaned up the visuals, but as previously mentioned, added a new angle to the game as it now gave you control over 2 new characters on top of Kurt.  As the story goes, Kurt gets captured by the evil Shwang Shwing after eliminating the last Minecrawler rolling over Edmonton, Canada.  (Bioware anyone?)  Max and the Doc chase after him to the alien planet of Swizzle Firma.  So, the levels rotate between Kurt, Max and the Doc, each one with a different playstyle and therefore different level layout.  Kurt follows the same theme as MDK 1; a bit of platforming and sniping puzzles.  Max is super fun, with his 4 arms he can wield 4 separate guns including pistols, shotguns, uzis and huge chainguns.  Max's levels are primarily run-and-gun, but are a real blast.  Dr. Fluke Hawkins' levels are an interesting style of puzzle platforming.  You can collect bread and a toaster to shoot toast, ladders, sodapop and a few other bizarre items to help you with your platforming.  

        MDK 2 was just about fantastic.  Combining ridiculous beautiful violence with random bizarre humor and gorgeous setting.  Writing that is worth your time and gameplay that cements that.  Not all games get the sequels they deserve, but luckily this one was taken with care.  It's also available as of recently in the form of an HD remake that has been lovingly updated and available on Steam for those who want to try it.  I haven't yet, but the screenshots look fantastic.  I'll have to pick it up one day for sure.