Happy New Year (Almost)… I Need A Clue!

Posted on December 31, 2011 by geelw

OK, I have NO idea what sort of banner to make for January, but I’ve a few ideas, given what’s coming next month (er, year.)Let’s see now… (*flip!*)… a quick coin toss says Silent Hill HD Collection gets a January banner, so it’s off to grab some screens and play around a bit. Despite the “collection” not having Silent Hill 4 on it (it wasn’t THAT bad a game, really!), I’m looking forward to replaying SH2 and 3 for a few reasons. I have both games within arm’s reach in my PS2 library here, so I can compare notes and see how well the HD versions turned out. Well, that’s settled. Now I can get some sleep… maybe. I have the feeling I’ll pop up and post something else, but maybe not, as I need to roll out of bed and do a pile of laundry before the laundromat gets packed to the gills with 12/31 folks doing their last-minute loads for luck or whatever…

D2: WARP’s Last Gasp Makes For A Curious Cure For Holiday Melancholy

Posted on December 30, 2011 by geelw

While the holiday season is usually packed with happy jolly tidings and the usual mass consumer craziness (that’s turned some shopping malls into pepper spray scented war zones), it’s also a time for reflection and a bit of moodiness about current and future events. Winter also brings in a bit of depression, as we humans are also prone to go gloomy when the lack of sun and warmth hits hard, sending some into a depressed state. Kenji Eno and WARP’s final console game, D2 has been my go-to holiday gift for myself ever since it was released on the Sega Dreamcast in Japan back in 1999. I’m not going to do a full review of the game (there’s an older one I wrote posted here), but I will say that the game manages to capture the feeling of being inside a bad winter dream that you can’t wake up from, yet one that you don’t want to simply because you want to see how it plays out. It’s definitely not for all tastes and in fact, can be baffling even when you piece things together into a more sensible narrative than what’s presented. On the other hand, the game also soars into unsuspecting territory a few times and packs an emotional punch where it counts. Continue reading →

Gallery Update: A Few Boxed Sets (PS/PS2)

Posted on December 27, 2011 by geelw

Oops. I’d forgotten to add these big box sets in the earlier photos, so here you go. With the exception of ZXE-D: Legend of Plasmatlite, everything’s been played. I haven’t actually had the will to snap together those robots in that big box and get someone else to sit down in front on the TV to try the game out, but if I ever stumble across a second box one fine day, I’ll actually play the game. I’m not expecting Soul Calibur or anything resembling a great fighter, mind you. But it should be good for some mindless fun for all the work it takes to build those robots. Oh well. maybe I’ll go track down a copy of Panekit instead. That’s an import I’ve been wanting for a long time. Oh, if you want to know what’s inside that big ZXE-D box, there’s an old, but in depth post HERE, courtesy of NCS. I had a couple more (Mars Story, a few Square Millennium boxes, special Dual Shock controller/game/t-shirt bundles and others, but I had to condense things because I’m out of room here).

Gallery: PlayStation Import Library

Posted on December 27, 2011 by geelw

Like all of the other libraries here, this was a bit bigger a few years back, but has shrunk a bit over the years. I’ve got a few nice guides that list every game made for the console (outside of demo discs from magazines and trial version discs, which I’d love to see more of at some point). As usual, far too many RPG’s never made it to the US and that’s too bad considering the quality of a lot of the ones here. It’s also too bad horror-themed or other adventure games like Moonlight Syndrome (or heck, the entire Syndrome series), Silver Jiken, Dark Messiah and others. Yes, I do like racing games and almost anything with a mech or mecha in it (which means I still have a lot of stuff to play that I haven’t yet). Super rare stuff like Rakugaki Showtime, Xanac x Xanac, Geppy-X, Double Dragon and a few more have been sold off for a while, but it was great to have experienced all of those while they were here. I think that’s everything I have left, but we’ll see if anything turns up as I get to the rest of the library in 2012…

Gallery: PlayStation 2 Import Library

Posted on December 26, 2011 by geelw

Yikes. I hadn’t realized that I’d sold off more than half of what I had until I started going through my PS2 stuff. Most of it was budget-priced Simple 2000 stuff, launch/launch window titles and a few oddities. Still, I thought I had a bit more than what’s here. Hey, as long as I have my Chikyuu Boueigun and Onechanbara games plus some of the other fun stuff here, I’m set. Of course, I’ve played a LOT more imports than I actually own and thankfully, my PS1 collection is a lot larger (although it’s shrunk a bit over time from the insane pile it once was). Then again, I’m still nowhere near the back end of the tower of games yet, so a few more PS2 imports may spring up in the coming weeks. We shall see…

Gallery: U.S. PlayStation & PlayStation 2 Demo Disc Library (Part One)

Posted on December 26, 2011 by geelw

Absolutely not a complete set at all (I’m missing about 15 OPM discs from the later end of the mag’s run as well as a bunch of PS1 demos), but there’s a nice selection here that’s always great for reference purposes. It’s too bad US gamers didn’t see a lot of PS3 demo discs like the ones released overseas in the UK and Asian territories. At this point in time I only know of a handful of PS3 demo discs that were released here but I could be wrong. I actually need as many of them as possible just so I can see what actually made it out around the world. I really, REALLY miss the great days of being surprised by some cool US demo discs popping up in the mail, that’s for sure. I have some other PS1 and PS2 demos and Jampacks in a big box of PS1 games (or behind a few hundred games currently stacked on top of a dresser) that I’ll post at a later date.

Gallery: Xbox/Xbox 360 Demo Library

Posted on December 26, 2011 by geelw

I’m missing a few Official Xbox Magazine demo discs as you can see, but overall, I’m happy with what’s here. Actually, I have disc 31 in a slim case buried in a stack of games here (and possibly a few other demo discs), and disc 2 was supposed to come with the second issue a few years back. However, all I got after I subscribed was the mag itself and NO disc (grrr). As for the later discs I’m missing. I’ll dig those up at some point, as I see small to medium size lots floating around a few places for cheap. I actually want more single game demo discs as well as kiosk discs, as I know there are a bunch out there I don’t have yet. One day, one day…

Merry Xmas And All That Stuff (Update Division)…

Posted on December 25, 2011 by geelw

Good thing I was awake, as I just got an email letting me know I left out a link to the Muzzle Flash review I’d posted on GameFaqs. Well, it’s now fixed (see the original post below), so go read that novella of a review if you want to. Yes, it’s long as hell for such a bad game and I need to go back and correct at least one sentence that I know of. But the game is SO awful that the bad parts need to be explained (because heck, I know many of you won’t even get to play the game at all). Hope Santa Claws got you what you wanted. I got what I wanted (well, partly), so I’m a happy camper that’s going back to bed now, Zzzzzzzz…

Gallery: Xbox Import Library (PAL & NTSC-J)

Posted on December 24, 2011 by geelw

Yes, it’s a tiny selection, but hey, I’m working on it (albeit very sloooowly, thanks to not having any spare funds these days). Anyway, the good, the bad and the ugly here, as in Metal Wolf Chaos, Gene Troopers and Muzzle Flash. MWC is simply awesome (and a wee bit controversial, although a US demo was released), Gene Troopers is mostly awful but REALLY interesting as the weapons selection is amazing (and Insomniac Games would be proud of most of the guns here) and some of the visuals shine. Muzzle Flash is quite frankly, one of the worst games I’ve ever played for a few reasons I listed here. At least CT Special Forces, while equally hard and cheap, can actually be completed and is often intentionally hilarious. MF is just a total “m-f” to play and is one of those games it seems ONLY the folks who made it ever completed. When you lend a game out to six people and get it back with almost the EXACT same response, that’s a bad sign. I keep it around because I’m going to keep pecking away until I can complete it past the second stage (but it’s NOT on my bucket list, that’s for sure)…

Gallery: Assorted Preview/Review Disc Library

Posted on December 24, 2011 by geelw

Yes, I’ve kept almost everything I’ve gotten to preview and review (save for stuff I’ve had to send back), so here you go, a bunch of Xbox and PS2 games (plus a paltry few PS3 and 360 ones for good measure). Some are demos or incomplete beta versions, some are complete trade demos, check discs or debug code plus some quirky stuff like that E3 2006 PSP Memory Card. Of note are some titles that were almost to completely localized and SHOULD have been released (Dinosaur Hunting, and Rent-A-Hero #1), an awesome build of Arx Fatalis (it had the infamous “chicken cheat” from the PC version that was taken out of the console game plus a weird save game with a nude barkeep) and some other fun stuff. Yup, that’s Bedlam, an unreleased Sega Saturn game in the last photo (it was a port of a PC game). I haven’t played it, as I don’t have any way to at the moment, but it does have a nice Redbook soundtrack. Despite its popularity, I’m not one for “dumping” stuff, but I’m all for legal emulation on older unsupported consoles or abandonware PC titles.