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Archive for the ‘Video Games’ Category
« Previous EntriesProgramming in D
A few days ago, on Twitter, I said that “Attempting to install D is like trying to speak a secret language, only everyone who knows it is speaking a different dialect than you.” That may have been misleading: what I actually meant was, that attempting to install the whole stack of D + DSSS + Derelict + Arclib is like trying to speak a secret language.
Here’s the secret part no one is going to tell you, and that you will not find written down anywhere: do not install version 2.x of the D compiler. This will save you no end of trouble. Stick to 1.0. Here’s the procedure I followed:
- Go to the D website, download DMD for your OS of choice in whatever the latest 1.x line is, and install it according to the directions on D’s site.
- Install DMC, still following the directions on the D website.
- Download DSSS next, install it alongside D. I suggest stacking everything under a subdirectory so it’s all in one neat place. Windows note: put it on a path that doesn’t have any spaces. (On Windows my D installation is at C:d\.)
- Use environment variables to put <your/path/to/your/d/folder>/dmd/bin/ and <your/path/to/your/d/folder>/dsss/bin/ on your path.
- Open a command prompt and type:
dsss net install derelict. - When that’s done, type
dsss net install arclib. - Go about your business as usual.
What your business is, well, that’s up to you. Me, well, I just want to be Kenta Cho. (Fun fact: Tumiki Fighters and Torus Trooper both are playable with the Xbox 360 Gamepad on Windows. Much more fun than just using a keyboard.)
Brawl Brawl Brawl
My Super Smash Bros. Brawl friend code: 3308 4229 3088
Please let me know if you add me, so I can add you back.
I wish I knew why but my current favorite character is turning out to be Diddy Kong. Diddy Kong?! WTF?! I don’t even like Diddy as a character, but he’s fun in Brawl.
More for myself than anyone, a character checklist (big ups to Burch for helping me unlock all of these): Read the rest of this entry »
My search-fu has failed me
I think already know the answer, but: does GTA: San Andreas for the Xbox still support custom soundtracks when played on the 360?
No, playing music on the Dashboard and then booting San Andreas does not count for the purposes of this question. I’m talking use of the in-game custom music radio station.
I’ve already bought this shirt. I had to.
This is Why I’m Hot T-Shirt @ Snorg Tees
The shakedown: Transformers & Pokemon Battle Revolution
Picked up both of these games yesterday, since I had them on reserve and had store credit to completely cover one and partially cover the other. (Yes, I’m a 24-year-old man who likes giant robots and battling monsters. So what, you wanna fight about it?) How did they fare? Read the rest of this entry »
Behold it
YOU CANNOT ESCAPE GUTS MAN’S ASS
Just keep watching it, trust me. Gets insane near the last 30 seconds or so.
Robots in disguise… disguised as decent tie-in games?!
Apparently the tie-in games for Transformers might actually be good. Gamespot’s take, IGN’s look at the console versions, IGN’s look at the DS version.
Gamespot’s is a bit more in-depth than IGN’s, of particular note is this little tidbit:
However, our favorite part of the bonus material is the inclusion of a number of playable “generation one” Transformer characters. You can expect to either terrorize or defend the populace with Optimus Prime, Megatron, or Jazz (among others) in all their old-school glory. The game will even feature some bonus missions featuring Transformers that weren’t included in the film. We got to see a sequence with Prime fighting Shockwave, who looked very similar to his original incarnation from way back when. However, this version of Shockwave will be a triple-changer, which means he has robot, turret, and helicopter forms.
Apparently Vicarious Visions is also using the same exactly 3D model files created by Industrial Light and Magic, and the film’s score composer is doing the music for the game. The Autobots storyline of each game follows the movie, while the Decepticons is sort of an ‘alternate future’ version where it tells the plot, but the bad guys come out on top.
Sweet. Let’s just hope these initial views aren’t misguided.
Two game-related notes
First off, the English translation of Der Langrisser has been released. Feel free to grab a copy of the ROM, patch it, and go. Instructions are all over the website. If you like strategy RPGs and can take a little bit of old-school flavor that’s been several years in the translating, you owe it to yourself to check this out.
Secondly, I started playing Final Fantasy XI. Again. I realized my problem before is that I keep getting impatient: the reality is, when I’m patient, I’m actually pretty good at this game. Not dealing with idiots yet helps, too. One idly wonders if I could take my THF/WAR clear to level 20 and just skip Valkurm altogether. I’m averaging about a level-and-a-half a night, so at this rate it’d take me… until Thursday or so. Hmm.
My cell is at the ready
City of Heroes, of all things, has been optioned for a film. I stand at the ready to play Stormchaser, a role I play a few nights a week anyway.
I have no idea how I’d look in that sky-blue-and-yellow suit, though. Or the dark grey one. Hmm.
Super Mario Bros.: the really, *really* lost levels
Most people who know about Super Mario Bros. know about the infamous Minus World glitch. Basically, you slide through a wall, you go down a pipe, you end up in a world that doesn’t really exist; hence, instead of displaying 1-1 or 2-1, it displays -1. (Incidentally, here’s an explanation of why the Minus World works - or rather, doesn’t.)
However, for a while in Japan, the game was re-released on the Famicom Disk System. The FDS was a Japanese-only Nintendo-proprietary floppy-disk game system. And, you might think, surely re-releasing Super Mario Bros. onto a different format entirely might change the way the Minus World works, right?
Well, you’d be right. Watch this video to see how right you are:
Fascinating. The FDS version of the Minus World kind of works!
All the zombies you can shake a Wiimote at
Well, Resident Evil fans, Destructoid has good news and ‘meh’ news.
The good news: Famitsu’s confirmed the RE4 remake for the Wii. You’ll be aiming with the Wiimote (ala the upcoming Metroid Prime 3), shaking the remote while holding B to reload (ala House of the Dead 4?), and waving the controller without B to knife some zombie bitches (ala … Resident Evil: Deadly Silence, I guess). This port’s gonna include the added stuff from the PS2 version, such as the Ada missions, as well as a trailer for Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles.
The meh news: The meh news is Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles.
It appears that the Wii “original” Resident Evil title, Umbrella Chronicles, will be a first-person gun shooter on (wait for it) rails. There will be no free movement (other than occasionally choosing your path), with the game focused entirely on shooting. The game will detail the fall of Umbrella Corp., and will include most main characters previously seen in the series.
In preparation for this potential disaster, gamers can feel free to pick up a copy of the PlayStation 2 game, Resident Evil: Dead Aim, for under twenty dollars at their local pawn shop.
I’ll probably pick it up anyway. As anyone who’s seen me play Rez knows, I sure do love a good rail shooter from time to time.
Whither Vic Viper?
Today, Destructoid asks: where have all the spaceships gone?
When did you last play a space shooter? Better yet, if you’re under the age of 20, have you ever played a space shooter? Back when it was a popular genre, we used to run to the local 7-11 with a fistful of mom’s laundry money, eager to plow through a hectic sea of deadly asteroids and insect-shaped enemy craft.
Since those days when high scores meant something, it seems every other genre that existed at the time has grown and evolved into something amazing. Rally-x paved the way for Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport. Pitfall became Tomb Raider. Even other classes of shooters like Contra have led to great games like Gears of War.
Why, then, have space shooters hit a darwinian roadblock? If Metroid can move through generations and still be fun, why can’t Galaga?
It’s a valid question. I think I’ve been looking for a good space shooter myself; the last one of any real worth I played was Ikaruga, and there’ve been times I’ve debated getting a Sega Saturn just so I can go back and play Radiant Silvergun (especially since someone’s finished translating the rather epic story). Heck, I’ve even thought of picking up R-Type Final for the PS2. And yet I haven’t. (Actually, the last ’shooter’ I bought in any fashion? Gradius, on the virtual console. Prior to that? Rez. I love Rez to death, but that’s another story altogether.)
Dtoid asks at the end:
What do you think, robot friends? Would you jump at the chance to play a 3-D spaceship game built for the 360, or do you think this genre is no longer viable and should be forgotten about?
I have to say I’m unsure - at least, about the 3-D part. I think part of the appeal of the space shooter is simply that it is uncomplicated in terms of gameplay (now, as for staying alive? that can be deadly). Putting things in 3-D naturally introduces all the complications that come with trying to dodge shots that are now coming from in front of you; depth is really hard to judge when you have no shadow, it seems. (On the other hand, there is Rez. Rez is not about the challenge, though.)
Maybe I should break out XNA Game Studio when I get home - I’m almost itching to try my finger at doing this myself, and the overhead or side-scrolling shooter is pretty much the standard demo project for just about every game development system ever. Hey, it’s worth a shot.
Worth four simultaneous shots, in fact, if I have Options.
Crying over spilled zombies
Looks like the end of an era: Capcom announces it’s shutting down the Resident Evil: Outbreak servers, mere days after Konami announced a kill-by date for the Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence servers.
Capcom regretfully announces that the server for our Playstation 2 online game Resident Evil Outbreak: File#2 will be closing at the end of March 2007.
Since Resident Evil Outbreak File#2 was released in August 2005 , Capcom has provided a server enabling consumers to experience the online element of this game free of charge.
Regretfully, conditions now dictate that we must close down this server effective from March 31, 2007. Naturally it will still be possible to play the game offline, but the online component will no longer be available.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of those who have been loyal members of the RE Outbreak community for the past months.
Fan reaction was, of course, tragic. … Wait. Outbreak still had fans?
I think I am going to cry. This is the worst news ever. I am very very very disappointed with Capcom. Not only has this forum gone sour, and no new games kept my interest, but my FAVORITE Capcom game of my literally many many many Capcom games is going to go foul as well. This is a HUGE massive disappointment. Resident Evil Outbreak and Resident Evil Outbreak File#2 are almost literally the only games I play, and I play them for several hours a day online. Last night I played both, and I actually just got off from playing File#2. These games are simply not fun offline. I think this is a bad decision, because I know many many people who play these very often like I do.
Apparently, very devoted fans.
No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They can not take the game I love!!!!!!!! I will fight them to the end to have this server remain!!!!!!!!!!!!! How can I contact Capcom about this?!!!!!!!
… Seriously.
Mega Man vs. Pedobear in an ASCII duel to the death
From Joystiq: 2ch meets flash gaming, and the world may never quite be the same. Check out this video from Jinsei Owatta No Daibouken, aka “My Life Is Over’s” Big Adventure:
Wanna be an Instrument Protagonist?
What the heck is a Guitar Villain?
According to CVG, two trademarks filed by Guitar Hero publisher, Activision, have recently popped up on the US Patent and Trademark office website. The two names, Guitar Villain and Drum Villain, are linked to “computer game software” and “games sold with electronic guitars,” both apt descriptors of everyone’s favorite couch-jumping rock sim franchise.
I can’t possibly imagine what this would entail. Perhaps you have to bite the head off of a chicken or something with the new chicken peripheral?
(via Joystiq; source article is at CVG)
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