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youxia

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Posts posted by youxia

  1. Posted

     

    Oh, I get it, believe me. I've obviously been around the "scene" forever and around other people who do the same with music and movies or whatever. It's incredibly common for people to find their comfort zone, stop, and then never evolve beyond it, vastly preferring the "old" stuff and picking holes in the "new" stuff, while glossing over any issues with the "old" stuff.

     

    Rather disappointing, to see this kind of low-blow argument trotted out here. So, it's only stuck-up luddites living in a nostalgia flavoured retro cloud vs adaptive visionary progressives? A fairly black and white, unfair take, one which could also be easily reveresed: "It's incredibly common to find people who turned their back on the past and are non-critically embracing the "new" stuff, who constantly pick holes in the "old" stuff, while glossing over any issues over the "new" stuff". Sounds fair?

     

    The fact that I like CRT TVs and have serious complaints about modern gaming does not necessarily mean that I (nor many others) automatically belong to that stereotypical cartoon-like retro gamer trope. I've owned most modern consoles up till this gen and only folded my AAA PC gaming rig last year due to relocation. I clocked hundreds of hours in games such as Fallout 4, Planetside 2, No Man's Sky, Elite Dangerous or X COM. I'm a gaming news junkie and keep tabs on all the latest developments. Hardly a basement dweller hunched over a shrine to Mother.

     

    "Change" is not always good, despite it being a constant mantra used to hand wave away criticism in any walk of life. Personally, I'm also non-convinced by the particular arguments offered in defense here. Discoverability may (or might not) be easier today - but it was never really that great a problem. We had mags and word of mouth and from what I recall it worked quite well. Quantity does not equal quality. So there is a million gaming apps on a mobile and 10000 RPGs on Steam? Great, how many of these are of any substance?

     

    There clearly is not "every desire" represented since complaints can be heard not only in my post here (vocal minority, eh?) but all over the net. When a game style such as that of Dark Souls is hailed as something special I feel it's like rediscovering the wheel all over again. "Innovation" does not need to be just coming up with new stuff, but at least following up and expanding on the old: instead we get something like Deus Ex which nearly 20 years after the groundbreaking original offers only more polygons and much less emergence.

     

    There's probably no point going over the digital vs ownership debacle any more either since it's all done and dusted now...but it will never cease to amaze me how people in favour of it can only offer something as really minor as "zero shelf space" or "portability" as key pro- points. Especially when contrasted with the opposite facts: "you can't sell or trade it", "it requires online connection" or "it can be taken away at a whim". It's definitely not a "generational" thing - just a corporate stranglehold model sold as convenience.

     

    None of the modern changes are all good or inevitable in the present form. We could have digital downloads with ownership rights. We could also have modern blockbusters unafraid of challenge and being satisfied with sticking to decade old design templates. We don't, mainly becasue these ways make much more money for the few. That is why I'm not a fan of non-critically embracing everything, only because it's "new".

    • Like 1

  2. Posted

    I disagree. The "golden age" was characterised by several key factors which are missing today. There was endless innovation and risk-taking present in AAA gaming. You owned your games and could do with them as you please. The DLC/microtransction model which totally affects game design was unknown. These were real things which we really could use in modern gaming, not some nostalgia-affected memories. The great promise which was there back in the day fizzled out and has mostly been substituded by safe and rather boring status quo.

     

    I'd still much rather play Spellcasting 101 than some modern "adventure", since the design template is now by default so full of hand-holding and death-aversion that it eliminates any real challenge or motivation to play, for me at least. When I have to mod GTA V, game mostly about car chases to make crashes actually cause some meaningful damage, you know something's not right. In the assorted Deus Exs or Witchers you now just follow the arrows/markers, get through some rudimentary combat and watch cutscenes. Apparently gamers do want "narrative experiences" which are a poor substitute for real gameplay. Of course, I am generalising and there exceptions from the rule, but proportions compared to the olden times have changed, without a doubt.

     

    It's a bit sad to read about that on a major retro-gaming forum, especially from peple who specialize in gaming history. Fair enough, I guess, as long as one remembers that it's not some universal truth but a personal opinion. Sure thing, tastes do sometimes change with age. I'm kinda glad mine did not though (and I'd still much rather watch a Taxi Driver or a Die Hard than their modern equivalent - if there are any)

    Perspective is key as well: some kids today still can not afford everything and swap warez with pals, unlike middle aged men with substantial incomes.

    • Like 4

  8. Posted

    1. Threshold - infuriatingly addictive, genius design
    2. Marauder - love it, went over 100k yesterday, things get pretty mad later
    3. Malpass the Asteroid Mines - Defender4lyfe

    4. Lunar Leeper - bizzare and devious

    5. Choplifter - B/W gfx is so cute, fastest Choplifter ever

    6. Inter Galleon Battle - quite amusing

    7. Hard Hat Mack - fave at first, bit cooler now

    8. Kult - would be higher if the ship didn't steer like a concrete piano

    9. Galactic Patrol - not sure how to play it yet

    10. Jawbreaker 1 - I actually don't like PacMan or its clones, FITE ME!
    Night Mission Pinball - not played yet
    • Like 1

  10. Posted

    Are we going to get some royalties from that book/article/listicle/blog you're writing and we're contributing to?

    Or perhaps a virtual bottle of wine for helping out with the school paper/assignment?

     

    Whatever it is, the deadline must be tight.

    • Like 3

  11. Posted

    These Alternate Reality: The Videogames threads could actually be fun, if only the OPs weren't usually so po-faced and uber-combative, as if it these were some life & death matters and their solution the only true one. And the "proofs" are as much valid as those from Ancient Astronauts on "History" Channel. Hey, Spyro The Dragon sold a lot of copies so of course "western games" (lol) would save Saturn! How can you not see that?

     

    The other thing is the fixation on hardware specs. Oh, so X could render 7.3 more pixels per second than Y and also its sprites were less "fuzzy" (WTF), ergo X should've taken over the world if only the CEO was OP. But in reality, as any fule kno, hardware's power is only one of the factors behind a platform's success. If it wasn't, ZX Spectrum/PSX/Wii/Switch wouldn't shift a unit and we all would be playing on XNeoGeoStations in 2018.

    • Like 4

  12. Posted · Edited by youxia

     

    After playing a little more, I can vouch it really is smooth scrolling, and all the enemies move pixel by pixel (soft sprites?) so not jerky.

    :(

     

    What Atari machine and system (PAL/NTSC) are you running it on? I might try to replicate that, though atm I'm limited only to NTSC.

     

    Also, I can't start a game in Night Mission. The attract mode is running, but pressing Q does nothing. It's weird, since Q works in other games.

  15. Posted

     

    Uh these are FACTUAL Mascots for these companies. You don't have an "opinion: here. You are literally degrading before my eyes. You can't have an "opinion" that Sonic isn't the mascot of Sega just like you can't have an "Opinion" ratchet was a mascot for a PS2, when Sony directly temporarily advertised Jak as a mascot for around two years. Morons.

     

    There's no FACTUAL mascots for Sony and MS. Read about it for a bit and it's clear that it's just a mish-mash: eg Blinx was the FACTUAL mascot for MS but since everybody pissed on this, Master Chief is an UNFACTUAL mascot (yes! I was wrong! Master Chief apparently is a "mascot". And I'm glad that I never hanged out with folk who'd use such terminology, so pardon my ignorance).

    Seeing as the above is a FACT, it does not matter if Sony actually avertised Jak as the mascot since if you look it up, nobody can agree on who the Sony mascot is, and nobody seems to care much. In one poll I saw, Sly Cooper got more votes than Jak. Make out of it what you wish.

     

    That's all irrelevant anyway since the problem with this (and other) threads is not as much related to facts but the attitude you apply to the discusssion about them. I'm also a new guy, fairly argumentative one to boot and had my share of spats with the locals, but these are related mostly to opinions, not facts, since thye're a pretty knowledgeable bunch. And I would definitely not call them "idiots", "morons" or "5 year olds". That's what someone coming from NeoGAF would do though.

  16. Posted

    I don't even think of Master Chief as mascot material.

     

    He's about as anti-"mascot" as it gets. Even Cortana. I see the OP is trying hard to find one per system but it just made me cringe a bit, should have gone with "Which system selling game...". Sony & MS simply did not have any mascots.

     

    Sunshine was a classic, Jak quite awesome, but Halo was undeniably the most innovative (and fun for a FPS fan like me) game in a long time. If you've played it on Legendary that is, since that mode cranked the AI up to 11 and transformed the whole game into an incredible SP survival sandbox. It was ahead of its time, a truly next-gen title - well worthy the coveted 10/10 from teh Edge. In fact I don't think it has been matched to this day in the SP FPS realm (STALKER coming the closest) since the devs found out it's so much easier and profitable to substitute designing complex AI-centered gameplay with multiplayer..

    • Like 1

  18. Posted

    It might seem like a good idea to strictly organize a virtual collection by media type or alphabetically or by system type or any other number of criteria. Truth is that becomes boring and acts like a straitjacket. Most collections are going be organically organized and branching out like a tree. Eventually connections form from one category to the next and some of it becomes nested. Some it references something else. And in time it mimics your own personal mind-map

     

    This is a good example of why this subject is best approached on personal basis without trying for vast generalizations. If the logical way of organising feels like straitjacket to you, than it's fine, interesting even - but as somebody who've spent decades hanging out with rom-hoarders, I can assure you most people do stick with the un-organic, A-Z/by system, boring way. So it's not really a proof of any perceived digital advantage and even if it was it would be quite a laboured one.

     

    It's besides the point anyway, I already said both sides have pros and cons, and that my way is the mixed one. Obviously it's more convenient to sort and handle digital collections. But for some people who have time, space and derive pleasure from it, such operations are not a problem and do not come with any mental baggage - to the contrary, even when it comes to a basement-sized collections.

    • Like 1

  19. Posted

    it's just a mountain of plastic and cardboard, most of which holds little meaning outside the collective thought they represent.

     

    I wouldn't agree. These are real things with real value, with added bonus of ownership, artwork, perhaps nostalgia - for those who like this kind of thing. Something that a bunch of zeroes & ones that constitutes a "rom" lacks.

     

    I see this "total purging" attitude - quite popular nowadays, it is the same with other media - as the other end of the spectrum, a bit akin to hoarding. Seems maybe some collectors had this cathartic moment and "liberated" themselves, while others got their heads turned by the digital-only drive. I prefer to stay somewhere in the middle: do have terabytes on HDDs but also some shelves filled up. It's nice to have things :) It always amuses me a bit to read the tales of people who got rid of all those records/games/films/books, and are awed by the newfound space. But what will do they do with it? Probably put more things in there, or maybe it goes along with the modern "minimalistic & clean" fad.

     

    Sure, if it works for you, no problem - it's just there's probably no need to take that extra step and denigrate the other way. They both have their pros and cons.

  20. Posted

    In the case of classic videogames, we generally do not want the pixels to be antialiased :-)

     

    Modern heresy :) This is one of the main reasons people still keep CRTs around. Super-sharpness applied to retro games looks totally unnatural to me and old TV's intrinsic AA was always a blessing.

     

    Of course, I'm not saying that fuzz & other scaling artifacts are a good thing.

  25. Posted · Edited by youxia

    @mbd30: fair enough. I also only played it few years later on my own machine. At the release time I was stuck in Amiga's strictly 2D world and only had access to 3D PC marvels at my rich-parents classmate's house. Back then, I was more amazed by the tech side and possibilities than spooked, I guess.

     

    On topic of early 2.5D survival horrors I'd like to honourable-mention Bioforge and Ecstatica 1/2. I suppose some of you folk could say these "didn't age well" either, but I still consider them as landmark titles and dig the gfx even. I guess that transition from 2D to 3D period is really burned-in in my memory and I still appreciate the efforts of those paradigm shifting coders.

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