Dtoid's Got Talent

I don't have to tell you guys this, b??ut I will anyway: Destructoid has the?? best community on the internet. Over the ten-plus years I've been around and five-plus I've been on staff, I've made friends, colleagues, met several community members from far and wide, and even met my wife �all thanks to the power of community.

So when a community member gets involved in the industry, it's our civic duty to highlight their achievements and shill their wares on the site! After all, you get what you give.

[caption id="attachment_341942" align="alignnone" width="640"] _{They tried to get a new Darkstalkers game but Capcom said, "No, no, no."}[/caption]

Eagle-eyed readers will recall darrenhupke's first project, compiling a sweet coffee table book filled with screenshots from all Sony-published titles on the PlayStation 1. How do I know it's sweet? Duh, I have a copy! Not content to just publish one PS1 compendium, creator Darren Hupke is back at it with another book highlig??hting all Capcom-published ?games on Sony's first little beast of a console.

Capcom's PlayStation: A Chronological Visual Retrospective features over 45 games, 275 pages, and 750 screenshots similar to the first project, now complete with a little writeup and/or trip down memory lane for each game. Included are all-time classics such as Resident Evil (with the book covering all three versions released on PSX), Mega Man Legends, and Dino Crisis, but also some lesser-known titles such as Street Fighter: The Movie (which was Capcom's first PSX release!) and Freestyle Boardin' '99. If Cap??com dropped it on the PlayStation, Darren is here to pic?k it up.

When asked about the project, Hupke said, ??"I decided to do this project based on a follow-up from my last project. I’m a huge PlayStation fan and nostalgia nerd for this stuff from my childhood and if I’m being honest, I’m doing this for myself! I want this book on my shelf so I can thumb through it and remember and reflect on all these games I loved years ago. I know others will love it, too, but it didn’t exist and since no one else was going to do it this way I decided to do it myself! Looking back at a complete set of games from specific publishers in chronological order is ridiculously niche and nerdy, but it’s rad."

[caption id="attachment_341944" align="alignnone" width="1254"] _{Work-in-progress image of a page from the book. Who else's favorite is Street Fighter Alpha 3?}[/caption]

The most impressive part of all of this is the work that went into it. Instead o?f relying on ancient press screens,?? scans from magazines, or random internet searches, Hupke pulled each and every screenshot manually.

"I wanted to keep the 'visua??l' part of the book as the driving reason to dive in to it. So the screenshots are all a majority of the page real estate and each game has a minimum of 16 screenshots, one of which is a giant double page spread. For technology reasons I emulated the games and captured thousands of screens shots mapping a snapshot button to my controller. I’d play through most games as much as I could and use community saves to find key moments and late game scenes, secrets and bonus content, as well."

If you're interested in this Capcom book, or just here to support your fellow Dtoider, check out the book's Kickstarter page. Lord knows I will.

_{[Disclaimer: The author supported the creator's first book, but has not yet backed this particular work.]}

The post Your next coffee table book is all about Capcom appeared first on Destructoid.

That's okay, I'm your friend

I have a massive soft spot for the Rampage series. I’ve been fascinated with it since I was a kid. One of the first things I did while attending college is play through World Tour with a new acquaintance. It’s become a staple series for my husband and me to play. It’s simple. You drop in as a monster and mindlessly smash things until the game ends. Rampage: Universal Tour even had a hint of strategy in managing your stock of l??ives.

Rampage Through Time is the last of the games I had yet to ??play unless you count some portable ports. It only came out on the PS1 in 2000, having never received a port or re-release. Because of that, it’s been something of a mystery for me. Something I kept my eye out for so I’d have another title to play with my husband, but not something that I had to hunt down immediately. Eventually, a pristine copy joined my library, and it was just a matter of making time for it.

With a purposeful grimace and a terrible sound

I’ve already given the jist of the Rampage games, but here’s a bit more if you’re still unclear. You play as a 20-foot monster. You’re dropped into a city, and your goal is to raze it to the ground. To do this, you climb the sides of buildings to kick and punch them or stomp on them from above. The human military (and later, aliens) try to stop you, but you can refill your health by eating people or giant food that you find in windows. There’s not much more to it than that. It’s an act of balancing your health and dishing out as much destruction ??as possible.

The original arcade release in 1986 was a single-screen affair. It was a decent quarter-muncher, but it had about a billion (literally 786) levels that were roughly all the same. This made home c??onsole ports pretty excruciating since you didn’t just stop when you ran out of quarters. It expected you to ??keep going.

In 1997, the series was revived with Rampage: World Tour. This took the core gameplay of flatt??ening citi??es and expanded it beyond a single screen. Gameplay was still almost stiflingly simple, but when you had a couple friends to play it with, it was generally a lot of fun just seeing what city you’d end up in next.

After that, Midway handed development to Avalanche Software, who did a home console exclusive, Rampage: Universal Tour. Although the name implies that you maybe spend a lot of time in space, most of the game is actually just traveling the globe again. It’s easy to dismiss it as a lazy photocopy of World Tour, but a lot of small improvements were made to make it more fitting for consoles. There were more monsters, the progression was dis??sected in a way that made conserving lives a bit more important, the graphics were more varied, but largely, it played mostly the same.

Time-space anomoly

I really wasn’t expecting Rampage Through Time to shake things u?p any. Just the timing of it makes it seem like they were trying to squeeze one more game out of the same formula. The fact that it was PS1 exclusive even implies that they didn’t think it was worth po??rting to the N64.

The big shake-up here is that rather than just stomp across the earth a third time, you do it in different time periods. There are? quite a few different settings, ranging from Ancient Egypt to the future. How does this impact gameplay? Not a whole lot. There are some enemies that only crop up in particular time per?iods, but buildings have always smashed the same through the ages.

In a lot of ways, it feels like a bit of a step back from Universal Tour. After every three levels, it has you play a mini-game, then it moves you to a different random time period. While each of the time periods features their own aesthetics, there’s still a lot of copy+pasting and palette swapping. There’s plenty unique in every tim??e period, but it’s hard to ignore the buildings and humans that are just a recoloration from another time period. There’s more variety, but it’s not as visually a??ppealing.

Gosh darn it

At this point, you may be wondering why Rampage Through Time bears the mark of kusoge. Sure, it has its drawbacks, but nothing that should make it sound like a crap game??. So why has it been chosen?

Gosh darn Rampage Through Time. Gosh darn it to heck.

F??or some unfathomable reason, they chose to scrap the co-op campaign, and it doesn’t make any sense. Remember how I said I play these games with my husband? Well, so much for that. The only multi-player modes are a tournament through a set number of random time periods and the option to play through the game's derivative, crappy mini-games. Nowhere will you find the satisfaction of wrecking ??every time period with your buddies; it isn’t an option.

I'm not a duck

There is an “adventure�mode, but it’s single-player only. Here’s where it gets perplexing: the AI plays the other two monsters. No, this doesn’t mean that all the monsters can trek wherever they please, they’re all still stuck on a shared screen, so I don’t know why a human can’t play as one of the other monsters. The only difference is that there’s a competitive edge to Rampage Through Time. You are awarded a star in any of three categories that only exist to give you a slight head start in the teeth-clenchingly maddening mini-games that mark the end of each round. By the way, if you fail to beat the computer monsters at the end of the round, you’re given a game over and kicked back to the title screen. You know, because that’s what Rampage is all about: winning crappy mini-games.

I hate it. If you asked me how to make the worst imaginable Rampage game, the top of my list would read “make it single-player only.�The games weren’t exactly all that long, but they’re undeniably repetitive. I don’t often like having people around, but the only way I was ever going to get to the end of an??y of the games is by having someone around to eat nachos with. It’s just easier to stay awake when there’s someone I can bore with random facts about video games and complain about some niche game not getting a modern port. Extracting the multi-player is like getting rid of the hot dog and keeping the bun. I’m not a duck! I don’t just want to eat bread!

Just bread

I’m not sure I can recall the last time I’ve been so disappointed by any game. And all because they simply removed a feature. This must be what it was like for Halo split-screen co-op fans when it became online-only for Halo 5. It might just be a matter of expectations, but I don’t feel t?hese expectations are unreasonable.

There has always been a competitive side to the Rampage games, some more directly than others. But at the end of the day, you and whoever was cuddled up to you wanted the same thing: to see all the buildings knocked to the ground. So, I’m not sure what leads to this: a Rampage where multiplayer is not only strictly adversarial but also the winner is decided by whoever can play Asteroids better. What happened? This is clearly ??the ??darkest timeline.

Thankfully, it wasn’t the end of the series. Rampage: Total Destruction was released in 2006 on GameCube, PS2, and Wii. Critics at the time decried it as more of the same, but after Rampage Through Time shot its??elf in the kneecap, I’m ??happy we got that at least.

We won’t speak of the 2018 film based on the license.

For previous Weekly Kusoge, check this link!

The post Rampage Through Time for PS1 thinks you don’t have friends appeared first on Destructoid.

Critical Failure

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Iron & Blood: Warriors of Ravenloft came to me as a request from the fabulous Akeashar. I had never hear??d of it, but my local game shop had a copy in stock. As I browsed the rack of PS1 games, I couldn’t remember the name. I just knew it was ridiculous, and sure enough, I found it based on that fact a??lone.

I don’t know. Initially, I thought it might not be that bad. There’s a cheesy �0s CGI cutscene that seems to go?? on forever and doesn’t make much sense unless you read the story in the instruction manual, but the presentation seems like whoev??er made the UI maybe sort of cared. One of the characters is a werewolf, so that’s always a plus for me.

Then I got i?nto the game and a woman with no pants on shook her butt at me, knocked me to the ground, and stabbed my character in the dick.

Looks like you were over-matched, friend

Despite spending so much time playing bad games to the point where it might go past the limits of “hobby�and land in “passion�territory, I’m still sometimes surprised. It’s the same as a good game �you never know what bizarre concoction of mechanics is going to impress you. In order to tell you about some of my favorite games, I usually have to open with an apology. Sometimes, genius hides in the most improbable places. Except, we’re talking about kusoge, so reverse-genius. Or perhaps just a different kind of genius. So?mething wrought by a mind that can conceive wretchednes??s on a level beyond us.

Iron & Blood: Warriors of Ravenloft has that stunning level of badness. As its full name suggests, it’s supposedly a Dungeons & Dragons game. Except it’s a fighting game, which could be coo?l. Then you read the controls, and things get a little dicey.

Each face button is a different attack, paired wit??h high or low, so your fighter has a whopping 12 basic attacks. Then it’s like, “you can only hit a prone opponent by using the ‘Hit while down attack��which is toward, back, toward, circle. I am not making this up. This is how you strike at ??the crotch.

I might have been nicer if you begged

I decided to check out campaign mode because I already knew I wouldn’t be able to convince my husband to play this with me. You select four characters and compete against your opponent's party. Each figh??t yields rewards, and by that I mean, it always offered either magic power or a new teammate. A dude on the other team got an artifact once, but I don’t remember the voice mentioning it.

Let me tell? you something: I’ve read the entire manual, and I still don’t get most of the mechanic??s. I went into training mode to see if it was a tutorial, but instead, I was faced with a mystery. The AI doesn’t just act like a dummy that you can practice your hit while down attack. It’s completely just a normal fight. One that you can lose. There’s no move list for you to try out. I’m not even sure why it’s a separate mode.

But there are some mechanics that are just completely baffling. I was trying to figure out what was up with artifacts, so I checked the instruction manual and found that they can be toggled in the options menu. Can ??they? There’s no option there, and the spot where it should be according to the manual is instead taken up by Auto Save.

On my first playthrough of the campaign, artifacts never showed up for me as a match objective. I was puzzled, so I looked them up??, and I’m not sure I’ve ??ever seen a manual be so coy about a mechanic.

�i>In Campaign mode, contestants must find and acquire ar??tifacts by first recognizing an object’s unique signal, and then performing the proper button combination to gain the artifact.�/i>

That’s something I would write if I had to pen a manual without ever having seen the game. And if I was trying to meet a deadline of 3pm that afternoon. And if I stayed up the entire previous night playing Harvester.

I scanned the manual again for any mention of this “proper button combination�and it came up bupkiss. Must be simple right? No, I looked up a guide and every character has a different combination. Here’s Kaurik’s, for example: half-circle counterclockwise starting from up, an?d triangle. To be fair, this is apparently the sa?me combination of his Dervish Attack.

A??nyway, are you following so far? Becau?se I’m completely lost.

The Shin Test

It shouldn’t be this complicated. It doesn’t have to be. I have this test I like to run on bad fighting games called “The Shin Test.�It’s simple: crouch and hit the light attack button and see if that’s enough to win. See how far it can get you on the default difficulty, at least. Shaq-Fu rates rather highly on the Shin Test (or Shindex, if you will), but Castlevania Judgment does not.?? It’s not really a measure of quality, but it’s interesting when applied against kusoge.

How high Iron & Blood: Warriors of Ravenloft measures on the Shin Test varies based on the character you pick. Sarah the Werewolf, for example, wrecks shins. Even the gargoyle trashes tibias. The dorky wizard with the dumb thing o?n his head? Shins laugh at his stupid fire magic. With Sarah, I was actually able to finish head-to-head mode on the default difficulty with only crouching light attacks. The Minion of Chaos�legbones didn’t know what hit them.

Violence against crotches

I’ve covered a few fighting games in this column, and it’s really hard to say which is the worst. I don’t really want to give up the idea that Transformers: Beast Wars: Transmetals is the bottom of the dish drain, but Iron & Blood: Warriors of Ravenloft is right there with it among the caked-on dishwater. Iron & Blood might edge out a win simply because? of its enthusiasm for violence against crotches.

I never even mentioned the music, which is�interesting. If Iron & Blood looks like the sort of game that you’d see in a movie or TV show that represents a video game while barely resembling one, its soundtrack sounds like someone making fun of �0s techno. I almost couldn’t believe what I was hearing: a bunch of synthetic music until someone comes in whispering “Xenobia.�/a> Yeah, there are lyrics, and as far as I can tell behind all the grunting, they’re rapping about what’s going on in the game. To be fair, part of the soundtrack was done by Michael Bross, who did the scores for some of the Ratchet & Clank and Oddworld games. This is just not his best work. Or maybe it fits the unfortunate tragedy that is Iron & Blood so tightly that it’s really genius.

For previous Weekly Kusoge, check this link!

The post Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: Iron & Blood: Warriors of Ravenloft for PS1 is not worth typing out appeared first on Destructoid.

Never let anyone sever us again!

I’m of the opinion that the Mega Man X series went into a slow decline after the first game. 1993’s Mega Man X on Super Nintendo is easily one of my favorite games, then they just started getting progressively worse. Yes, I know there are many out there who love Mega Man X4 as much as the Super Nintendo titles. I am not among them. But that’s okay because I’m not here to badmouth Mega Man X4, we’re talking about Mega Man X6, which is two magnitudes worst than the lowest opinion of X4 could ever reach.

Ask anyone who recently decided to tackle the entire Mega Man X Legacy Collection in sequential order. It’s an absolutely miserable experience. To see a game series go from the most exciting things since a bread slicing machine to the most excruciating experience since a septic tank explosion; it taxes you. My husband requested I stop, as it was beginning to show signs of agitation, but I couldn't comply. Like reaching for the last pickle with a lacerated hand, it’s a great deal of pain for a small reward. What, I’m saying is: don’t do it. I’ll just tell you all about Mega Man X6 so we can move on with our lives.

The long-time captain of the series, Keiji Inafune, has said that he planned on the series ending with Mega Man X5, which is hilarious because that game is similarly terrible and he’s listed under the credits as “special thanks.�All the series' horribly blatant foreshadowing falls apart in X5, and it absolutely fails to bring resolution to a??nything.

Not that the Mega Man X games ever really told a coherent story. It starts off promisingly enough. The titular X was Dr. Light’s last invention; a robot with free will (implying the original Mega Man didn’t have free will, which does not compute). He’s sealed for diagnostics after Dr. Light’s death, but some guy comes along and puts a stop to that so he can reverse engineer X into a mass-produced line of knock-off androids called Reploids. The Reploids start going crazy, and humanity isn’t down with extinction, so a unit of non-crazy Reploids is created to hunt these “Mavericks.�/p>

Just to show you how daft this entire idea is, the humans try to move to the moon in Mega Man X8 using Reploids to help them build. The whole thing is tough to swallow to begin with, but then it just keeps fraying l?ike an elevator cable.

Speaking of which, the plot of Mega Man X6 is so mystifying to me, that I have to look up a synopsis every time I need to describe it. It’s three weeks after Sigma was defeated and X’s best friend, Zero, died in X5. It’s important to remember that both Zero and Sigma have died ?before and come back, so what does ?death even mean in this universe?

Apparently �and I don’t actually remember this as part of the plot �Earth has been rendered uninhabitable, and all the humans have migrated below the surface to survive. A Reploid named Gate goes mad after searching the ruins of space colony Eurasia, weird nightmares start happening, and X misses Zero. It sounds like H.P. Lovecraft went through a bad break-up, got drunk, and wrote a Mega Man X fanfiction.

It gets wor??se, but it really hurts my head. There’s this other scientist aside from Gate who sends Reploids out to investigate the nightmares, but they go insane, too. And Zero is tied into this and is maybe the cause of the nightmares, be he pops up again, much to the unhinged delight of X and they promise to never be apart again. I’m not even exaggerating for comedic effect, I really can’t make sense of the narrative. I feel like I’m untangling Christmas lights and one strand of them is connected to a bomb that will go off if I can’t separate the nest of cables within three minutes.

At the very least, the gameplay is standard Mega Man X. Nothing has really changed on that front. You charge your buster, dash jump across gaps, and pelvic thrust your way up walls. But then they apply all that tried-and-true action-platforming onto some truly ghoulish design. Some of its problems are blatant, and the others just beg the question “how did no one in testing find this annoying?�/p>

The defining moment of my playthrough was when I made my way through one of the final stages, found myself unable to complete a jump, and had to look up a solution. It turns?? out, I needed to be wearing a particular set of armor, and to equip it, I had to back out? of the level and start over. Good game.

But this extends to all levels, which seem to be designed t?o communicate a strong discomfort. The most egregious are these moments where the screen goes dark, and the entire section is lit by these crossing beams of light that swivel from fixed positions. It’s not like you have any control over what portions of the screen you can actually see, so you’re just waiting on whatever is in front of you to become visible. Sometimes you take damage because there’s no way of avoiding it. It’s the game telling you that it doesn’t care if you have to eat shit, it’s still not giving you a spoon.

Mega Man X5 had this wrinkle in the formula where you had to beat four bosses to complete a project, then it had a random chance of succeedi??ng. If it failed, you challenged the other four bosses for another random chance, and I?’m not joking when I say it could fail to and you could get the bad ending because the game hates you.

Mega Man X6 isn’t that outwardly hateful. It highlights certain levels as red, meaning they're under the influence of the nightmare. This? just means things within the stages have been rejiggered, which can sometimes allow you to reach different areas. It?? sounds like a great way to encourage multiple playthroughs, but really, there’s usually very little change. Oftentimes, blocks will just appear where they weren’t before.

The worst part is that there’s a greater focus on saving Reploids. X5 had the same thing where you saved people from the environment for bonuses, but X6 just uses it as a way to tell you to screw yourself.? It will spawn enemies right next to the hapless Reploids the moment you step on screen, so the only way to reach them without knowing their position ahead of time, is to throw caution to the wind and dash towards them. Fai??ling to reach them means a bonus item is removed from the game entirely unless you load and try again.

The Mega Man X series is like a meteor hit a landfill. From the highest point at the rim of the impact, it’s hard to believe that you’re a short decline from utter garbage. Playing X6 immediately after playing the original ?title would probably give you whiplash. You can recognize them as related games, but the difference in quality is such a stark contrast.

Things improved slightly with Mega Man X7, then again with X8, but the series never recovered and just faded away after that. After Mega Man 11, a lot of people, including myself, are hopeful for a return of the series, but if we do that, I think we need to take a flamethrower to large parts of the series. There are things better left buried, but X6 is better left dismantled and melted for scrap.

For previous Weekly Kusoge, check this link!

The post Mega Man X6 is a great measurement o?f how far it is to fa??ll from the top appeared first on Destructoid.

Plastic Men. Real Agony.

Few topics in the history of video games interest me as much as 3DO’s Army Men series. It’s not something we’ve seen often; a concept was devised with the hope of saving the company after the failure of the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer. It wa??s brand-first, stre??tched across multiple genres, and it got pumped out at a staggering rate. Between 1998 and 2002, somewhere around a ridiculous 20 titles were released, and when you factor in the unique ports, you’ve got north of 30.

If I ever choose to write a non-fiction book about video games, Army Men will probably be my topic. It will sell next to?? no copies, but then I can finally sleep. Afterward, insanity.

I’ve played most of the games and most of their ports at this time. Let me think of one I haven’t played: Army Men: Air Combat: The Elite Missions, and I’m pretty sure that’s just a Gamecube port of Army Men: Air Attack 2, w??hich I have played. But what if it isnâ€??™t? What are these “Eliteâ€?missions? I’ll find out eventually; that is something I can guarantee.

Anyway, if you asked me what the worst game in the Army Men series is �a collection of games of questionable quality �here it is: Army Men: Green Rogue on the PS1. A completely di??fferent game from the PS2 version, but we’ll cover that later.

If nothing else, Army Men: Green Rogue has some pretty lavish cutscenes for its time. The story has some secret experiment where all the DNA(?) of Sarge and his heroes are mixed into one big super-soldier. It’s so weirdly straight-faced that you could almost forget that these are plastic figures. The helicopter transporting this super-soldier is ambushed and crashes. The still-living experimen??t then goes to work doing what he was designed for: killing everyone who is a different color than him.

The general idea of Army Men: Green Rogue seems to be to provide a more arcade run-and-gun experience. Kind of like Commando or Ikari Warriors. The PS2 version sort of succeeds at this, but the PS1 version is, uh�The word "abomination" comes to mind, but it sort o?f feels like that doesn’t go far enough.

I’m really not sure where to start on this. Okay, let me describe the controls to yo??u: D-pad is to move, X is to shoot, square is to change weapons, and L1 or R1 is a bio attack. Done. That’s it. Without exaggeration, you could map the game to an NES pad. Maybe I should. Maybe I should find a way to plug in an NES Advantage and play it arcade style.

Not that it would improve the game. The camera is tilted back to give you a view of what’s coming and that kind of sucks for it. Oh, sure, you can see targets at a range, but you can’t actually hit them. You’re armed with Nerf and it can only shoot about 10 feet. Enemies also have that range, which is fair, but that means the moment you can hit them, they can hit you. There’s not a whole lot you can do about that aside from shoot first. You can’t dodge, you can’t take cover, and you can’t sneak up on them. The only tactic the game really has up its sleeve is moving? in a serpentine pattern while lobbing styrofoam darts at the enemies.

Avoiding damage feels a lot like luck, except I had the misfortune of realizing that the blast radius of grenades ??very sl??ightly trumped the range of an enemy’s Nerf Elite 2.0 Commander RD-6. At that point, I’d stand outside their range and throw pineapples at them while they grappled with their intense fear of moving.

Do you know what might have helped? A roll but??ton. Perhaps just a dodge button. Dare I dream??: the ability to sprint? Anything to help you get out of the way of their bullets. But no, that’s out of scope. Are you not happy mashing the X button?

You pick up weapon upgrades, but that doesn’t fix the issue of range. If it did, the game would be a cakewalk, but it’s not. No, because you die really quickly, the enemies have this amazing ability to hit you, even while you’re moving. If that wasn’t bad enough, Green Rogue has enemies that appear behind you and attack from off-sc?reen. It also places enemies in spots where the camera is quick to turn away from because the camera is evidently just a lens crammed into an ass.

Green Rogue is largely on-rails. You can’t go off-screen to the left or right, and the camera pans on its own. Poorly. Whenever it has to round a curve it stutters horribly. It has such a narrow field of view that it will often obscure enemies. What’s funny is that the developers seem to forget Green Rogue’s on-rails limitations, because on some stages they put items that you couldn’t get because your predefined route doesn’t g??o near it.

It’s unlikely the design began as a standard third-person shooter. You’re funneled through canyons and such that were obviously set up to give a clear sense that they’re just set d?ressing. It’s just like the design just sometimes doesn’t take into account its own mechanics.

The small complaints I have about Army Men: Green Rogue would be big problems in more competent games. Like, for example, you can’t aim up or down, you’re utterly dependent on this really weak vertical auto-aim system that only sometimes decides to take responsibility for allowing your shots to cle?ar small bumps in the environment. Enemies are often placed on ledges, and they must ?find it really hilarious that you can shoot at them, but can’t hit them.

Likewise, foliage sometimes provides impenetrable shields for your foes. It’s bad enough that it sometimes obscures them entirely until you walk past and get shot in the back, but you also can’t shoot through branches, even if you know the??re’s something there.

Your saving grace is the fully upgraded bazooka, which allows you to essentially project a while of splash damage in front of you. Above, below, behind cover; nothing is safe from splash damage. This may sound like it would make things easy, but it still has a pathetic range. At least it’s better than the flamethrower, which seems to only succeed in forcing you to step into the line of fire fo??r the reward of watching the enemy soldiers die a slow, bubbling death.

Just when I think I’ve seen everything, Army Men: Green Rogue proves that there’s a bottom beneath the bottom of the Army Men franchise. I’m not even sure how this happened. A lot of the development staff worked on games in the Army Men: World War sub-series, and those games are generally competent. It’s like they were asked to show that the PS2 Army Men: Green Rogue could be cut down to fit on the PS1, so they created a prototype and it was accid?entally published.

I say with hesitation that this is probably the worst Army Men game I’ve played. The most egregious titles in the series, such as Army Men: Soldiers of Misfortune, are awful but playable. This one is barely that. It’s not the worst game I’ve played on the PS1, but being sandwiched between Hooters: Road Trip and Mary-Kate and Ashley Crush Course is still not a very good look.

For previous Weekly Kusoge, check this link!

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RIP DisneyQuest and most Microsoft Stores

Back in the '90s, corporations had tons of cash to toss at elaborate "store" concepts. Some of those still exist now, but this is when DisneyQuest reigned supreme, before the second location shut down in 2001. A physical PlayStation Store? though? Never been. Though it loo??ks like a place I wanted to be in 1999, and is appropriately era-elaborate.

This physical PlayStation Store existed at The Metreon in San Francisco, so some of you may have even been to it! It actually lived until 2009, so it had a good run. Three photos of the store have been floating around Twitter this week, traced back to the Shift-Suite blog: they are the most 1999-looking thing I've seen in a long time. Look, I'm a sucker for '90s kitsch. Straight-up, this concept rules. This is just two years after the first Men in Black film, and it sh?ows with some o?f the orb design in the third image.

The giant demo stations with the springing contr??oller rods, the PlayStation merchandise on display, the bar-style atmosphere with tons of discs in a sealed case, and the clear window concept: it's calling to me like a siren's song. Obviously it would evolve over time, and the 2000s and the PS2 era were very different, but this snapshot will live in my memory forever.

//twitter.com/3CC0__/status/1470890730260475914

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Why couldn't this have been Twisted Metal III?

2012 was a pretty bad year. Your crazy co-worker was right, and the world was laid waste to by Mayans or something. Corporation??s were quick to rise from the ashes to monetize our misery. Big Daddy, for example, reb??uilt the United States into a massive tourist attraction. Relive the days before the catastrophe in luxury and see the sights!

B?ut the gig economy won’t be kept down. Automercenaries compete to the death to show vacationers around the exploited remains of the country. Have you consider??ed putting your life on the line to shuttle the bored middle-class around the newly veneered monuments of this dystopian hellscape?

That’s my embellished take on the plot of Rogue Trip: Vacation 2012, though it’s rat??her accurate. It’s a vehicular combat game th?at actually involves giving tours.

Rogue Trip was developed by Singletrac after their contract with Sony expired and they were left without any Twisted Metals to work on. Instead, they took it upon themselves to further embarrass 989 Studios�Twisted Metal III the same year as Vigilante 8. It has pedigree, with many of the developers from Twisted Metal an?d its sequel working on it. No, not David Jaffe.

All the same, you can easily see Twisted Metal in Rogue Trip, they just added an extra twist to it. If you went from Twisted Metal 2 to Rogue Trip, you’d probably feel right at home. The weapons all seem familiar, the controls are practically the same, and you know those directional pad combos that activate?? things like shields? Yeah, those are still here. And they still suck.

The edge has been taken off. Sort of. Remember how the first two Twisted Metal games had an unsettling quality to them? Rogue Trip is a lot goofier. One of the characters is a chef that drives a hot dog. Another is a cross between Batman and Mickey Mouse. A swarm of ??angry poodles is one woman's special attack. It’s not all flowers and good times, but it’s a heck of a lot brighter than Singletrac’s ?previous games.

The other big change is in the economy. The tourists are there as a sort of a take on capture the flag. You need to grab them, take them?????????????????????????? to the various?? sights around the arena, and rack up some cash. If another driver gets hold of them before you do, you either destroy them or use a weapon to eject the tourist and grab them before someone else.

Make no mistake, however, the name of the game is still to be the last one standing. It’s not a complete reinvention of the genre. The money can just be used to repair your vehicle and upgrade your weapons. If you want t?o jus??t go ham on your opponents and throw whatever you can grab, I’m not sure that’s the soundest strategy, but have at it.

You travel from Washington D.C. to Las Vegas. Grotesque versions of them, anyhow. Big Daddy generally? features heavily in the scenery. It’s his America, after all. This game suddenly feels quite topical.

The levels are, thankfully, more of Twisted Metal 2 quality than Twisted Metal III’s dismal offerings. They provide the same sort of opportunities for destruction, though I don’t remember seeing anything as awe-inspiring as blowing up the Eiffel? Tower. Still, the very fact that you need?? to show a tourist around ensures that there are interesting things to fill your eyeballs up with.

One deficiency it has against the Twisted Metal games is arguably its cast of characters. Twisted Metal seemed to have something for everyone -- bizarre, creepy, heroic, villainous, cool, stupid -- Rogue Trip is m?ostly just bizarre and stupid. A flamboyant wrestler, a sexy? nun, a grotesque Elvis. You’ll probably pick the guy who drives the weiner-mobile, because when all you have is weird to pick from, you might as well go for the weiner.

Rogue Trip doesn’t really do anything new for the genre, which is probably why it got buried by Vigilante 8. The tourists donâ€??™t really add all that much. You don’t want to completely discard that?? little divet of gameplay, but I never really used the weapon upgrade system. I usually just kept my cash for repairing my vehicle.

The soundtrack is going to divide people because it heavily features ska. The Mighty Might Bosstones are pretty prominent, to give you an idea of what you’re looking at. I personally don’t mind ska, but I know some people look at it as sewage flung from a trumpet, so I feel I should at least off??er a warning. You could always crank down the mus??ic and listen to, I don’t know, Rob Zombie.

In a perfect world, Twisted Metal III would have been shunned completely and a pedestal would be erected for Rogue Trip. It’s not perfect, but in the absence of an actual good Twisted Metal title in 1998, it deserved the attention. That’s just the power of the brand, I guess. This was the height of the vehicular combat genre, and while Rogue Trip wasn’t the apex, it defi??nitely belongs at?? the cool kidsâ€?table.

It’s really worth playing if you enjoy the �0s era of vehicular combat games. I say that as if there’s a modern era. Hold on, I’m going to try and think of the most recent game released in this particular sub-genre. Uh, Carmageddon Max Damage. Does that count? How about Gas Guzzlers: Extreme? Help me out here.

For othe??r retro titles you may have mi?ssed, click right here!

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PlayStation Underground takes me back

The upcoming MediEvil remake got a limited time demo a few weeks back that was base?d off of the original PS1 demo. Released on the PlayStation Underground demo disc (that takes me back), it was the first taste anyone got of Sir Daniel Fortesque's adventure from beyond the grave. It's also super nostalgic for a select group of people, myself included. To celebrate the remake, Sony recreated the demo as the new demo.

If you happened to forget what the original looked like, Sony has released a 33-minute featurette comparing the PS4 version against its PS1 inspiration??. It certainly looks better, that's for sure. I guess 20?+ years of technological improvements will do that for any game.

What impressed me most in the demo is that MediEvil's performance was ironed out from previous trailers. The demo wasn't perfect, mind you, but it ran consistently enough and rarely had slowdown. The camera controls were even more refined than the original, which led to better playability. I don't think MediEvil w??ill be reconsidered as an all-time classic, but this remake is certainly living up to the original's legacy.

MediEvil – 1998 vs. 2019 Gameplay C??omparison | PlayStation Underground [PlayStation via YouTube]

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Return of the Mack

As was rumored earlier today, Sony has announced a demo for the upcoming MediEvil remake during today's State of Play stream. Containing the same levels as the PS1's own demo disc (remember those?), players will be able to tackle "Dan's Crypt" and "The Graveyard" to get a sample of how Sir Daniel Fortesque?'s return to action is. I know I'm looking forward to it and that double dose of nostalgia by recreating the ori??ginal demo is a nice touch.

The demo is currently available on the PSN and will only be available until October 6. It'll take up around 11.6 GB of space and playing it will net you an in-game cosmetic to wear. The game, pr??oper, will be hitting retail and digital shelves on October 25, 2019, for the PS4. With any luck, it'll be successful and spur a resurgence for the series.

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Heads will roll

Other Ocean Interactive has announced that work on the MediEvil remake is complete. The game has recently gone gold and will be on track to get sent to pressing factories for its physical edition. The long-awaited reimagining of the PS1 classic, MediEvil w??ill be releasing on October 25, 2??019, for the PS4.

I'm certainly excited to give this a spin, even if my love for the series is kind of based on nostalgia. I have a lot of fond memories of trekking through that demo disc when I was a child and I've always wanted to get a proper wack at the sequel. Hopefully, if this remake turns out okay, Other Ocean can try its hand at remaking 2 and maybe even creating 3? I can dream, at least.

Other Ocean [Twitter]

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Hopefully it releases in the next decade

In a recent interview with fansite GT Planet at the Nurburgring World Tour event, Gran Turismo series creator Kazunori Yamauchi teased what the future of the racing series may hold. Speaking with regards to the follow-up for Gran Turismo Sport, Yamauchi stated, "Obviously we're working on the next Gran Turismo already, and the world of sport we've achieved through GT Sport is something I've always imagined to be the future of Gran Turismo. We were able to establish that now."

Yamauchi then explains that while he typically doesn't return to older titles, his recent tours in promotion of the series has been met with fans approaching him and showing love for Gran Turismo 2 and 3, specifically. Seeing that outpouring of support has spurred Yamauchi to revisit those titles, to which he said, "it's surpri??sing how much I've forg??otten!"

Developer Polyphony Digital's push to redefine the future with each entry has potentially distracted them from what made past entries so good. "Having done all these World Tours, it gave me the opportunity to feel the history of Gran Turismo," Yamauchi said. "It gives me pointers and hints of the things we should make sure that we do in the future of the series. I think the next title that we're going to create will be a combination of the past, present, and future – a complete form of Gran Turismo."

That's all I could really ask for, too. I understand that Polyphony Digital tried something different with Sport, but its laser focus on online competition created a package that felt threadbare at release. Even with constant content updates, the game still didn't improve much a year after release. Maybe a single-player campaign isn't the most important thing around, but the lack of vehicl??es and weather effects created a static game that felt stuck between two different eras of racers. The lack of reason to interact with that content was the real stinger, though.

As for what platform the inevitable follow-up will land on, Yamauchi couldn't say. For him, VR seems to be what he is most interested in. "The first thing that’s going to be affected by more power is VR," believes Yamauchi. "I don't think that there's anything else that requires that much processing power. I really like VR; I'm one to believe in the possibilities of it, and it's very suited for a driving gam??e." He explains that VR is something that will continue to get better as GPU power increases, which is what ex?cites him.

So while we're clearly a ways off from Gran Turismo 7, at least we know Polyphony Digital is taking the time to evaluate what made the series so special in the first place. I can only hope they get there because there is no reason why Forza should be running unopposed on the console ra??cing front.

Next Gran Turismo Will be a 'C??o??mbination of Past, Present, and Future' [GT Planet]

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But only in the US

File this under the "completely random" column, but PS1 classic Mr. Driller has been delisted from the PSN store on PS3. Why is anyone's guess, but even more curious is that only the North American version has gone missing (the title was never made available in Europe). Japanese gamers can still grab the game and its second sequel, Mr. Driller G, without issue.

This could be an issue with licensing, but I can't say for certain. Bandai Namco still holds the copyright for Mr. Driller and Dig Dug, so it's not like they are forbidden from selling t?he old game. It could also b?e a fluke in the system or a push to get gamers buying the PS1 Mini, but Sony hasn't said anything on the matter. If you were hoping to grab the game in the near future, then I'm sorry to break this news to you.

Now if only you could play these PS1 classics o??n PS4...

Mr. Driller PSOne Classic Has Been Delisted In North America [Siliconera]

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Record skip, record skip...

Final Fantasy VII might finally be on a Nintendo platform, but that doesn't mean everything is right in the world. For some crazy reason, an audio bug present in the PS4 version of VII is still present in the recently released Switch version. This is also a bug that launched with the St?eam release back in 2012 for those keeping score.

The bug pertains to the overworld music. It isn't game breaking, but the theme playing on the overworld will reset after every random encounter. Another small error has the screen flashing to black when transitioning away from FMV sequences, which also doesn't ruin the game. The main complaint is that these have been known problems, yet Square Enix has done nothing to fix them over the last seven years. It's also doubly irritating because this same problem was present in the recent Final Fantasy IX ports.

There's no word on whether or not a fix is coming, but just be warned that you might be hearing a lot of the opening chords for Final Fantasy VII's overworld music.

Final Fantasy VII On Switc??h Reintroduces Bug That Was Patched Previously [Nintendo Soup]

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'Die Pig!!'

Suikoden II is 20 years old this month and is arguably one of the best JRPGs ever made. I could sit here and list out every reason why, but our own Ray Porreca already made a case for Suikoden II's big picture. I only just beat Suikoden II for the first time in 2018 and couldn't feel like a bigger moron for taking as long as I did. Instead of reiterating on the amazing article Ray wrote ab??out why this game is so god damn fantastic, I wanted to zero in on one of its characters that stuck with me the most.

Luca Blight, aka The Mad Prince, is the greatest villain of all time. An average human man, pure evil to the core, he makes Kefka look like Mother Theresa.

The evil actions of Luca set the entire conflict of Suikoden II into action. When he gains control of Highland's army he manages to instigate a new fight with their neighboring nation of Jowston by massacring the Unicorn Youth Brigade the unit our protagonist is a part of and blaming the attack on Jowston thereby nullifying the ceasefire between the two countries. Luca seems to be willing to instigate another conflict just for the sake of quenching his own bloodlust, as well as using the massive blood sacrifice to awaken the Beast Rune (Runes are used to conjure magic in the Suikoden universe), but even that only served as a me?ans to more carnage.

Unlike most RPG villains, Luca Blight isn't some magical experiment or ancient deity trapped in a mortal body. He's a plain and simple psychopath. This might stem from some childhood trauma, but little is done to establish sympathy for Luca. One of your first encounters with him shows him burning the city of Ryube and forcing a woman to pretend to be a pig and beg for her life after which he slaughters her wh??ile laughing manically for good measure.

You're not meant to feel that Luca is misunderstood or that he's merely a product of his upbringing. He's an unhinged sociopath, and it's made pretty clear that the only route to victory is taking him down by any means necessary. It takes a total of 18 Stars of Destiny, that's three full parties of Suikoden II's massive cast of characte?rs, to defeat him in battle. There's even a point where our protagonist is forced into one on one combat with Luca Blight, all you can do is defend against his powerful at??tacks.

It's also important to note that Suikoden acknowledges that while Luca Blight is a monster and for the most part the cause of all of Highland's problems, killing him doesn't magically end the conflict. Unlike most RPGs where the role credits after you've put down the big bad, Suikoden II marches forward once you've dispatched the Mad Prin?ce. The events he set in motion are far more significant than a?ny one person. Fighting Luca is one of the fiercest and most satisfying battles of the game, but it's a brief moment of celebration as your army still has a lot of work to do. Those City-States aren't going to free themselves after all.

Even in his final moments, Luca Blight shows zero remorse for the countless atrocities he'?s committed and ?leaves us with one last line: “It took hundreds to kill me, but I killed humans by the thousands!”

I don't think it's th?at crazy for most to write off Luca Blight as an outlandish one-note character, but if you ask me, he's the greatest RPG villain of all time. A human in a seat of power who wants to kill and conquer. He's not looking to turn himself into some immortal god or get revenge on those who wronged him. He's an unsympathetic monster throwing a nation into a war for his own amusement.

Suikoden II might have gotten overlooked at the time for its older graphical style -- releasing in such proximity to Final Fantasy VIII pro?bably didn't help -- ??but even if it took me 20 years, I'm glad I finally took down Luca Blight, the Mad Prince of Highland puts other villains to shame. 

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Long live the City-States

I'll never love a game more than Suikoden II, and I'm okay with that. It's twenty years old now—a wisened, elder statesman of the console role-playing cannon. But even two decades after its initial release, Suikoden II still fee?ls fresh, rewarding, and somehow larger than life??.

For a vi??deo game that ?takes around 30 hours to complete, that's no small task.

"A sword doesn't need fine lineage, it ??j?ust needs to be sharp." - Luca Blight

I discovered Suikoden II in the pages of Electronic Gaming Monthly. The ad wasn't flashy, just an old, withered hand holding two white stones. As far as video game ads go, it was unremarkable. But something about it burrowed deep in my pre-teen brain. I spent years thinking about the game—dreaming about the secrets I’d learn from that creased hand if only I could figure out how to pronounce the game's name. Soo-ee-code-ehn? Sweek-ode-in? 

Whatever I thought about Suikoden II back then, it's a far cry from how I understand the game today: a surprisingly adult look at the impact of war from both sides of the battlefield. A game where characters question authority and struggle to understand their duties in a world wracked by violence. Suikoden II is a rare game in the sense that it understands how easily people can get swept into conflict. Its characters pursue their causes—often fighting for their homeland in an extension of a war that’s touched generations—with vigor and grim nobility. More than any other role-playing game of its era, Suikoden II acknow??ledges and builds up?on the underlying humanity of its cast. The fires of war are unavoidable. 

Suikoden II’s characters rally around war drums and banners. They march against powerful armies and hold fast to the notion that their fates are locked in service of something greater than themselves. They fight and hunt vampire lords. They love and lose loved ones. In Suikoden II, the critical narrative beats—moments of heartbreaking self-actualization and rebellion—carry monumental weight. Even its side quests, like an extended sidequest riffing on an Iron Chef-like cooking competition, work in service of fleshing out its conflicted world. Suikoden II is a beautiful and sometimes bizarre game. 

It’s also—at least f??or my money—the best game ever made. In? celebration of its 20th anniversary, here are twenty reasons why it's so good.

_{[Image via Kotaku]}

• There are 108 recruitable characters in Suikoden II. They're an eclectic bunch—warriors and thieves, blacksmiths and elevator technicians—who rally around the Hero and his army. Each one of the Stars of Destiny serves a purpose. Most of the characters you recruit are potential party members, but there are a handful of non-combat recruits too. Although you don't need all 108 Stars of Destiny to finish Suikoden II, scouring the game world and fleshing out your roster is just as fulfilling as plowing through the main storyline.
• Suikoden II is a remarkably grounded game, especially compared to most JRPGs. You're not fighting an ancient evil or some spiky-haired god. The entirety of Suikoden II takes place on a single continent. Its story follows two countries, the City-States of Jowston and the Highland Kingdom, as they're pulled into a bloody war. Although Suikoden II isn't a globe-trotting epic, it is a hyper-focused exploration of war's impact.
• You can play the entire game using only your left hand. Suikoden II is the best game ever made for left-handed people.
• Highland's mad prince, Luca Blight, is a truly evil and terrifying villain. He's cruel, violent, and motivated by an unquenchable desire to watch the City-States burn. Luca Blight kicks off the events of Suikoden II by ordering Highland soldiers to slaughter members of their own Youth Brigade and pin it on City-State rebels to kickstart a war. He destroys a village and orders the sole survivor to crawl around like a pig and oink in exchange for her life. He kills her moments later, laughing at the scene. Luca Blight is so powerful and imposing that it takes three units of six party members to defeat him. Even with eighteen characters, Luca puts up a fight. 

• Suikoden II has three different combat systems. You can have six party members at any given time, which makes the standard turn-based fights complex and dynamic. During key story moments, the Hero fights enemies in one-on-one duels with a rock, paper, scissors-like structure based on reading enemy dialogue cues before choosing to attack, defend, or launch an all-out attack. And finally, there are war battles, military engagements with light strategy elements where you move units around the battlefield and battle enemies in a manner similar to Fire Emblem. Although the duels and war battles aren't as common as your standard turn-based fights, they occur in pivotal story sequences and serve as monumental moments.
• Every Suikoden game occurs in the same universe. Players can import saves from Suikoden and encounter the game's protagonist in the sequel. Certain characters in Suikoden II played vital roles in the previous game and some pop up in Suikoden 3 (and later entries). The shared setting and frequent use of familiar faces make Suikoden II feel like a playable chapter in a history book.
• There's a surprisingly robust trading mini-game in Suikoden II that lets players moonlight as a master merchant. Some towns and villages have trading outposts where different regional wares are available for purchase. Each shop buys and sells goods at different prices; crystal balls are dirt cheap in South Window, but they fetch a pretty penny the Kolbold Village, where residents obsess over shiny objects.
• Entering battle with specific party compositions allows players to use special moves called Unite Attacks. There are over thirty different combos in Suikoden II. Not only does the Unite system encourage experimentation in combat, but it also fleshes out character personalities and their respective backstories. Suikoden II is a character-driven game and the Unite Attacks help solidify the community aspect of its army-building storyline.

• Suikoden II has a few different endings. Its "perfect" ending requires players to recruit every Star of Destiny, make certain dialogue choices during pivotal scenes, and choose to defend themselves rather than attack an old friend during the final battle. Although unlocking the secret perfect ending is taxing, the extended sequence is an uplifting tearjerker. It celebrates your decisions and struggles throughout the game and ends on a positive, hopeful note.
• In the Suikoden universe, characters channel magic through the use of mystical runes. There are 27 "true" runes in the fiction that attach themselves to key historical figures. Commoners who affix minor runes to their hands and forehead use magic too, though. Playing around with different rune layouts—much like the six-person parties and Unite Attacks—is another element that makes Suikoden II's combat system feel exhaustive.
• Story-critical characters join your team at pre-defined levels. However, Suikoden II has a notorious glitch where they'll join you at level 99. Having a character like Georg, the most powerful swordsman in the game, enter your party at max level is a great way to begin Suikoden II's final few hours.
• One of the earliest recruitable characters is a flying squirrel named Mukumuku. If you happen to miss him the first time around, have no fear. Leave an empty slot in your party and walk between Muse city and the nearby border outpost. Keep checking your menu after every few steps. With any luck, you'll see that the bouncy little dude filled your empty character slot without anyone noticing.

• Much of Suikoden II revolves around the Hero raising an army to defend against Highland. As with any fighting force, your troops need a base of operations. In Suikoden II, players take over a run-down town and castle. With each recruited character, it begins to grow and take on a life of its own. There's so much to see within your keep's walls. You can play whack-a-mole in the garden, commission massive sculptures, or soak in a steamy hot tub. Throughout the game, your castle develops from a dingy relic to a thriving community. If leading an army feels like too much responsibility, return to your base and chat with your recruits. Seeing them rally around your cause and make the castle feel like home is a great way to keep your mission in perspective.
• Clive, a member of a spy ring called the Howling Voice Guild, has a secret sidequest associated with him. After initially recruiting the gunman, players can undertake a multi-part journey across the map with Clive as he hunts down a woman named Elza who murdered a guildmate. Clive's quest plays out like a steampunk-meets-western revenge thriller. It's excellent bonus content and entirely missable; most of the quest-related cutscenes are gated behind challenging time limits.
• The Hero is like sixteen during the events of Suikoden II, and like many protagonists, he's selectively mute. There's something silly, but strangely hopeful, about hundreds of hardened fighters joining a war against an imposing enemy just because some teenager asked them to help out.
• One of the Stars of Destiny, Richmond, is a chain-smoking detective. After recruiting him, the Hero can pay for his investigative services. Richmond can help find additional party members or dig up secrets about the other Stars of Destiny. He's damn good at his job.

• It's entirely possible to lose characters in battle. If one of your units loses a fight during the SRPG-lite army battles, there's a chance the character will die. Sure, there are 108 party members in the game, but after spending hours recruiting them, the prospect of losing one for good is a tough pill to swallow.
• After stumbling upon a wayward chef named Hai Yo (who, for whatever reason, is part of a secret society of master cooks), players can deliver recipes and ingredients to his kitchen. From there, the Hero can create different meals, which function as healing items. Hai Yo also has a goofy Iron Chef subplot where he battles against his rivals.
• Once you beat the game, an extended sequence revealing the fate of each recruited Star of Destiny plays. It's a nice touch that feels like a "high school yearbook" moment and adds closure to a game with an expansive cast. I always consider it a send-up to Can't Hardly Wait, but that's just me.
• During a crucial army battle, your troops get saved by much-needed reinforcements. After the Highland soldiers retreat, players learn that their saviors weren't knights or mercenaries; the bartender, innkeeper, and other non-combat characters stepped up at a time when you needed them most. The dialogue is touching and wholesome as heck. It's possibly the most underrated moment in Suikoden II.

More than anything, Suikoden II is unafraid of playing with your expectations. Its greatest strength lies in an ability to take a standard story and build it up with political intrigue and shocking twists. Although the game's English translation occasionally feels clunky, its script is chock full of powerful moments. What begins as a story about three friends—the Hero, Nanami, and Jowy—trying to keep themselves safe in a dangerous world quickly grows into a tale of trust, duty, and the hardships of war. Suikoden II's early hours build upon the main characters' friendships, which makes watching them fall apart a painful—but necess??ary—narrative device dr??iving the rest of the game forward. There's nothing like it. 

Here's to Suikoden II, the biggest little game in the world.

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Routinely forget about your free PS Plus games? You might be in for a frightful surprise...

Happy Halloween, ghoulish readership! As the days draw shorter, the air becomes crisper and the lattes taste spicier, the time for horror and gore is now upon us. No doub??t many of us will be spending All Hallows' Eve playing a bunch of terrifying games, hoping to crap that not too many Trick or Treaters ring the doorbell so we can scoff all the miniature Snickers ourselves. But maybe your game shelves are a little empty? Or you are feeling a little uninspired b?y recent horror fare?

Never fear – if you’ve been a long-time PS Plus subscriber or even dipped your toe in the pool now and then, there may be a few f??un terrors available to you for no extra cash. As far back as 2011, I could find classic horror games that people got (technically) for free through the subscription service, and will still have accessible on their account if they currently have PS Plus. So, what are the highlights?

_{[Note: the availability of these games may vary depending on your region; the list is accurate for the US.]}

Silent Hill &n?dash;? PS Plus game in April 2012, playable on PS3/PSP/PS Vita/PSTV

If you want a trip down memory lane, and games à la Potatovision don’t bother you, there would be worse places to start than the original Silent Hill. Following Harry Mason on a que??st to find his daughter, who disappears after a car crash, the player stumbles across all manner of strangeness, including cults??, drug rings and symbolic monsters.

It was a project borne from Konami trying to find something for one of its ailing teams to busy thems?elves with, and wound up being one of the company’s more groundbreaking franchises. Technically speaking, it is pretty wonky in 2018, with highly claustrophobic camera angles that simply come across as frustrating and a level of "moon logic" required to get the best endings. Not to even speak of how ugly and blocky the game will look blown up on a larger TV. Perhaps stick to playing this one on a Vita, with your head buried under the bedcovers.

BioShock 2 – PS Plus game? in January 2013, playable on PS3

The BioShock games find horror in more political roots, behaving largely as a cautionary tale against an out-of-control version of libertarianism and utilitarianism. The result is mutants and experiments, and the people left behind after the collapse of society. While BioShock Infinite is less about horror and more about the machinations of those looking to create a perfect society in Columbia, the original two BioShocks were more about…well, the ?biological shocks and horror.

BioShock 2 builds on the bond the player perhaps developed in the first game with the Little Sisters, having you step into the weighty shoes of a Big Daddy. Part of the frightening nature of BioShock 2 comes from the fact that you are tasked with protecting someone so vulnerable. What the Big Daddy sui?t lacks in survival horror subtlety, it makes up for in pure firepower and ability to wreak go?ry, genetically-modified havoc upon foes.

(Psst: the Remastered version is currently on a heavy discount on Steam, but the reviews are pretty poor, so I ??would advise sticking to the original version.)

Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward &?ndas?h; PS Plus game in April 2013, playable on PS Vita/PSTV

Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma – PS Plus game in July 2018, p?layable on PS Vita/PSTV

VLR and ZTD are the second and third entries to the Zero Escape series respectively. The general premise of the series is quite similar to Saw: a group of people trapped in a location and given a series of puzzles to complete, with various rules on progression, in order to survive. VLR is heavily based on the Prisoner’s Dilemma and also ideas like colour theory, while ZTD falls over itself to includ?e a whole host of l??ogical and moral problems, such as the Monty Hall Problem and the nature of action versus inaction.

I much, much preferred VLR to ZTD. I felt like the plot to VLR tied itself up in a neat little bow, while ZTD got a bit out of control towards the end. VLR managed to make all of the characters sympathetic, while ZTD had a few poorly fleshed-out yet thoroughly detestable characters. VLR is a pretty game. ZTD looks clearly experimental and eerily similar in design to Deadly Premonition. However, it’s because ZTD tries something new with its full motion presentation (as opposed to the traditional visual novel format), and because it really ramps up the gore on i?ts predecessor, th??at it earns a place on the highlights reel, too.

While it is a little harder to follow what is going on if you haven’t played 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors (the first?? game in the series), the story is not hugely convoluted and a Wikipedia recap, or paying full attention to what is going on in VLR and looking up what you don’t understand, would suffice. You should definitely not miss out on VLR, and once that’s done, ZTD is worth it just for the spectacle.

Catherine – PS Plus g??ame in May 2013, playable on PS3

If your idea of horror is commitment to another human being, or succubi, look no further than Atlus’ bizarre puzzle game/thriller Catherine. If you can’t wait for the Full Body PS4 reissue (with additio?nal content) at the beginning of next year, the original g??ame is a fun use of a few hours.

The puzzles are fiendishly difficult, so don&r?squo;t be too proud to dial down the difficulty to Easy or Very Easy on a first playthrough. At the same time, this is not a game you want to play multiple times for the story; it is one of the shallower depictions of both men and women in the dating world that I’ve encountered in recent memory, so the plot seems to get less interesting on each successive attempt. But climbing to the top of a towe?r you’ve wrestled with over the course of 30 spent lives is an incredibly rewarding feeling, particularly when you have an ice witch or a literal butt monster pursuing your every step and trying to catch you out.

Deadly Premonition: Director’s Cut – PS Plus game in June 2014, playable on P?S3

For some people, Halloween is the perfect opportunity to rewatch Shaun of the Dead, hunker down and wait for the incessant knocking on the front door to blow over. Horror and comedy make a surprisingly good pairing, and Deadly Premonition is a good example of this (whether the comedy aspect wa??s deliberate or inadvertent).

Playing as Francis York Morgan, a man who turns up in an oddball suburban town to find a serial killer, the parallels with Twin Peaks could barely be more obvious. It goes for the slightly unreal aura of Twin Peaks, but overshoots and ends up in comedic Sinner’s Sandwich territory. Particularly if you enjoyed D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die, are currently trying out The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories, or can’t wait for The Good Life, it might be worth digging this one out. You might not be ?cre??eped out by the Shadows, but you might be freaked out by the strange animation.

Resident Evil HD Remaster – PS Plus game in October 2016, playable on P??S4

While Director’s Cut was available a full five years earlier on PS Pl??us, the remastered REmake is such an impressive feat of modernisation, and the Lisa Trevor storyline is ?so inspired, that this is probably the superior choice. (Say no to tank controls!)

The classic tale of special ?operatives plonked in a mansion and uncovering secret scientific experimentation gone awfully wrong – or supremely well, depending on who you ask – became much more than a relic of the PS1 era with the GameCube remake, and the PS4 version sands off a few of the rough ed?ges. It’s incredibly tense, punishing and bloody.

With the appearance of new enemies that are harder to kill and can destroy a playthrough out of nowhere, it might be less daunting to opt for the easier Director’s Cut. But if you want a challenge and genuine??????????????????????????? fear, go for the newest edition of one of Capcom’s most famous games.

Until Dawn – PS Plus game? in July 2017, playable on PS4

Some people don’t want to be genuinely scared on Halloween, but instead revel in the unbelievable cheese of big-screen horror. Until Dawn knowingly draws from franchises such as Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream to retread old ground: a band of d??umb teenagers up to not much good in the woods, who are picked off one by one. As long as the player has the nerves to keep their DualShock 4 steady when prompted, they can determine who dies and who lives, and find out more about how a bunch of rela??tively spoilt, privileged kids got themselves into such a mess.

Until Dawn relies on an appreciation for the overblown and typical horror tropes, so if you’re more into arthouse horror flicks, this might not be quite your cup of tea. But if you’ve ever watched a goofy thriller and just wished you could have stopped that first naïve soul meeting a violent end, or just want to see more of Ra??mi Malek, this might scratch that very particular itch. Itchy, tasty. Oops, wrong game.

Of course, the current spooky PS Plus game, Friday the 13^th – The Game, is available right now, even if you are a newer adopter of ?PS Plus. Additional horror-themed PS Plus games are listed be??low:

• Resident Evil: Director’s Cut – PS Plus game in September 2011, playable on PS3/PSP/PS Vita/PSTV
• Dead Space 2 – PS Plus game in August 2012, playable on PS3
• Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition – PS Plus game in October 2012, playable on PS3
• Metro: Last Light – PS Plus game in January 2014, playable on PS3
• Outlast – PS Plus game in February 2014, playable on PS4
• Lone Survivor: Director’s Cut – PS Plus game in June 2014, playable on PS3
• Dead Space 3 – PS Plus game in July 2014, playable on PS3
• Zombi – PS Plus game in April 2016, playable on PS4
• Siren: Blood Curse – PS Plus game in June 2016, playable on PS3
• Killing Floor 2 – PS Plus game in June 2017, playable on PS4
• Until Dawn: Rush of Blood – PS Plus game in November 2017, playable in VR only on PS4
• Claire: Extended Cut – PS Plus game in March 2018, playable on PS4/PS Vita/PSTV
• Dead By Daylight: Special Edition – PS Plus game in August 2018, playable on PS4

What are ??your favourite games to play at Halloween from this l?ist?

The post Spooky scary games lurking on PlayStation Plus appeared first on Destructoid.

!

Escape the room experiences have been big for a few years now, so much so that a lot of them have licensed intellectual properties to become more enticing. Hell, it was even the basis of a recent episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. With so many escape room experiences popping up it was o?nly a matter of time before someone reverse engineered the experience and tried something new.

Metal Gear Real Infiltration Game is the brainchild of Tokyo Mystery Circus in Shinjuku, Tokyo that puts yo?u in the shoes of Solid Snake infiltrating Shadow Moses island as either a three-person team or as a true to form solo operation. Your goal is to sneak past armed guards and destroy Metal Gear before it can be used to launch a nuke. Outside of your tactical vest and a communication codec, all weapons are OSP (on-site procurement).

As expected the codec is how the game directors will communicate with you but the infiltration vest serves as your target should you alert the guards to your presence. Here's the interesting part, if you are shot you don't die or lose the game, ??you just lose time and will have to move faster to complete your goal. Additional time can be purchased because terror?ists can always be bribed with more money.

Speaking of money, the experience is surprisingly cheap. Solo tickets are listed as 3,880 yen (~US$34), wi??th the pair and trio experience starting out at 4,880 (~US$43) and 6,300 (~US$55) yen respectively. 10-minute continues cost 800 yen (~US$7). Times are also counted individually so if you've got an Otacon for a best friend you aren't dragged down by them.

The best part about all of this? It's surprisi?ngly English friendly. Going off of a report from SoraNews24, they state that while the verbal instructions are given in Japanese, there is an English rules card and all videos are subtitled in English. Guard actors are trained to react to any loud noises so the universal act of holding a guard at gunpoint can stretch across languages. Take that Skullface.

The Metal Gear Real Infiltration Game is currently running in Tokyo with plans for it to run through December 31st. Tickets can be purchased in advance through the official website. Sukiyabashi Jiro is classified as a restaurant good enough to warrant a?? trip to Japan alone but this ?Metal Gear Solid experience is also making a strong case for me to forgo financial responsibility and hop on the next plane to Tokyo.

Tokyo's ??Metal Gear Real Infiltration game is awesome [SoraNews24]

The post Real life Metal Gear Solid infiltration ro??om experience is very much? my bag appeared first on Destructoid.

Coughs and sneezes spread diseases!

Usually, I'm ?quite indignant about any suggestion that my commitment to the PlayStation brand could bite me full force in the arse. I've grown complacent about the fact that everything I want either 1) comes to the PS4, or 2) is so bare-bones in terms of its technical requirements that my cheap-as-chips elderly laptop can handle it, no probs. And if you were to suggest that I piece together a decent ??gaming rig and stop being so horribly dependent on Sony, you may as well be asking me to remove someone's appendix.

But indeed, it has come back to haunt me, since I currently have no way of running Two Point Hospital -- yes, my laptop is that craptacular. The game is a?? tad more than a spiritual successor to?? Theme Hospital?, with key figures such as Gary Carr and Mark Webley involved in both games, and operates on the same principle, but with more finesse. Despite the relatively high price point for a non-AAA game, I was very excited about the release of Two Point Hospital, precisely because Theme Hospital was a milestone in my gaming history.

In fact, it is a cornerstone of my gaming history in so many ways. It was not only instrumental in igniting my interest in games, but it was the first title I ever wrote a proper blog post about. What's more, Bullfrog Productions were the first game production company I considered myself a fan of, starting back with Theme Park but fuelled even further by Theme Hospital. So, what was so special about TH and why did it and its siblings attract me to management sims more than its competitors? Grab a KitKat from a nearby vending machine inexplicably placed in the middle of the floor while I regale you with a bit of the history behind Theme Hospital, my background wit?h the comedic cult classic, and a little bit of informat??ion on what followed for Bullfrog Productions.

The release of Theme Hospital

Theme Hospital was first released for the PC in March 1997, ?with a PlayStation port arriving the following year. As already mentioned, the game was originally developed by Bullfrog Productions, though Krisalis Software did work on the PS port. While Peter Molyneux came up with the idea alongside James Leach, Molyneux left the bulk of the work to his team while he focused on what would become the critically-acclaimed Dungeon Keeper, which was released just three months after Theme Hospital.

The level of control it gave you in running a well-oiled healthcare moneymaking machine, combined with great UI work, was laudable for the era in which it was launched. You could pore over balanc??e sheets and isolate individual points of financial weakness, if "winging it" wasn't your thing; furthermore, to build a successful hospital, you had to have a knack for complicated fields such as architecture and HR. Building a staff room too far away or messing up a corridor layout could be enough for disgruntled employees to threaten a walk-out or for patients to get lost. Yet all of this was conveyed in an entertaining manner, perfectly striking the balance between micromanagement and good fun.

The characteristic da?ftness of Bullfrog Productions' games, as evident in the highly sarcastic Theme Park (released for a variety of PC?? and consol?e formats starting in 1994), was amplified in Theme Hospital. The production team wisely decided to use made-up diseases instead of going for realism. Bloaty Head disease, and the treatment of popping your afflicted patients with a needle like a helium ballo??on, was surely one of the most ridiculous ideas ever injected into the traditionally stodgy management genre. It ranks up there with deliberately not repairing your bouncy castles in Theme Park and waiting for ?them to explode, ejecting h??apless park attendees 20ft into the air. There were a couple of extra perks for pop culture fans, such as Hannibal Lecter being called to see security by the receptionist, who provides a dry dose of wit throughout the game.

This sweet little package of tough-as-nails management sim (just you wait 'til you get to the last hospital, Battenberg) and slapstick wonder earned it high praise on release, getting an 8/10 in Edge and 85% in PC Gamer UK for the PC versions. IGN and Gamespot were both favourable about the PlayStation version, though Gamespot was quite critical of the PC original. If you are inclined to take a trip to the yesteryear of medicine that doesn't involve trepanning, you can pick up Theme Hospital for PC on Origin and on the PS Store as a PS1 Classic (in?? the US -- it has been removed in the EU. Boo hoo.)

Theme Hospital wormed its way into my?? heart, and I refused all medication

The question remains as to why Theme Hospital was so near and dear to me that I wrote one of my ??first ever pieces for Skirmish Frogs on the game, followed in short order by Theme Park World/Sim Theme Park. It's hardly your universally acceptable Mario or Zelda game that kids stereotypically cut their teeth on and it's not really pla?yground bragging fodder.

Well, my gaming habits were not influenced by my friends as a child -- I was influenced by my aunt. As a young child of probably just five or six, I had farted about with the PS1 controller while my aunt was constructing “Potatoland&rdquo?; in Theme Park, and by the end, I just about understood what was going on. The more complicated management tweaks you could carry out?? in that game involved gamin?g the fry stand prices and salting them so heavily that all your park visitors would surely make a reappearance in Theme Hospital for hypertension issues. So, when my aunt went out for the day once and my grandma let me fiddle about with her com??puter, the first thing I did was b?oot up Theme Hospital. Probably into a save file and not a new game.

Readers, it was a disaster.

I was bankrupt? wi?thin 15 minutes and had no idea what had gone on. Theme Hospital from that point in time became the game I enjoyed watching my aunt play, ??but for which?? I would remain resolutely hands-off; exactly the same as with Tomb Raider III and Command and Conquer: Red Alert. In a way, it was my first introduction to something analogous to Let's Plays and watching Twitch streams -??- I got great amusement out of my aunt's reactions and chatting about what was going on on-screen, but I wa?s happy to forgo active participation myself.

When the game was being offered for free ove?r a decade and a?? half later on Origin, of course, I broke this spell and went all in. Battenberg proved too tough a cookie to crack, but I loved all of the preceding levels, even if I wasn't naturally gifted at handling a budget.

A few things we?re ?noticeable on my new playthrough of Theme Hospital and became even more apparent when I? flirted with the game recently for speedrunning purposes. As a child, I had not really picked up on the biting satire it offered on the US model of healthcare. The receptionist chides patients into bringing their chequebooks with them; you get money by experimenting on your patients and boasting more expensive treatment options in your facilities.

Medicine as a service, and one t??hat snatches at your wallet, is something that naïve young Charlotte was not aware of at all. As time has gone on and I've seen the intro to the game a few more times, it makes me sad more than anything. It reminded me of how I have it easy. I still find the cynical commentary in the game sort of funny, but it's just so close to my experience of reality that it has a bitter aftertaste now.

Another difference from my experience as a very young child is that in the intermediate period, I have played a heck of a lot of The Sims. SimCity is another series I peered at over the shoulder of my aunt, but playing God on such a large scale never fully appealed to me: I wanted to mess with people's lives on a much more personal level. The Sims tapped into that well of benign narcissism and megalomania that is unparalleled in bored teenagers. And the Build tools in both The Sims and The Sims 2 showed up Theme Hospital's clunky room design and lack of control as to where you could place fixtures. Where I once considered myself a staunch follower of Peter Molyneux and Bullfrog's work, Will Wright and Maxis usurped that position in the early 2000s, and The Sims series left Theme Hospital looking a little primitive in its wake.

Bullfrog's demise

Although shinier management sims caught my eye in the early-mid 2000s, I did often check the PC section of Electronics Boutique, HMV and GAME for a follow-up or anything similar. I could never find ??anything to my tastes, and not following gaming news closely as a tween/teenager, I had no clue about what had happened to Bullfrog and Mr Molyneux.

Alas, Peter Molyneux jumped ship from Bullfrog just months after the release of Theme Hospital, an important move without which franchises such as Black and White and Fable may never have materialised. Bullfrog Productions carried on until 2001, making my (controversial) favourite Theme game of the lot, Theme Park World/Sim Theme Park. In my defence, my love of a non-Molyneux Theme game stems from the brilliant voice work done on the PAL version by Lewis MacLeod.

Overall, I am reluctant to revisit Theme Hospital through Two Point Hospital because my experience of the original was so potent. However, on second thoughts, there is a lot about Theme Hospital that left me cold on replaying it as an adult with much more gaming and comedic experience. Through offering a state-of-the-art and polished experience, Two Point Hospital could be just the antidote to the jaded feeling I get when I return to Theme Hospital, a game packed fu?l?l of good ideas but which definitely shows every single one of its 21 years.

I just have to ke?ep my fingers crossed for a console edition or get that baby gaming rig together.

Did you enjoy playing Theme Hospital twenty years ago? Do you have any games you returned to as an adult, only to be slightly disappointed? Are you having fun with Two Point Hospital right now? Let me know in the comments down below!

The post It’s time for my follow-up appointment with Theme Hospital appeared first on Destructoid.

'Original' graphics are back!

Chrono Trigger randomly appearing on Steam should have been a dream come true, but Square Enix's ports of classic RPGs have always been plagued with issues. The most pressing thing wrong with Chrono Trigger was the hideous filter applied to the backgrounds and character sprites, but today's update ??has added the option to trigger the "Original" graphics, which is a good start.

The first in a series of updates that isn't stopping at just presentation, this patch also addresses things like font sizes, text boxes, the intro sequence and dialogue window graphics. This should bring the game more in line with how fans remembered it instead of the s??ofter, less?? distinguished look the PC port originally had.

Here are the patch notes, for those interested:

• ‘Original’ Graphics Setting: A new option will allow players to choose between the current high-resolution character sprites and background graphics, or an ‘Original’ mode which has a display style closer to that of the original Chrono Trigger.
• Updated Font and Dialogue Boxes: Fonts and dialogue window graphics are updated to give the game a more classic look and feel.
• Adjusted Start-Up Sequence: The order of the animated opening sequences when starting a new game is reworked to be more in line with previous versions of the game.
• Additional enhancements and fixes to the text and graphics within the game to enhance the PC play experience.

CHRONO TRIGGER – Patch #1 Update [Steam Community]

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As part of the Off Camera Secrets series

Off Camera Secrets is doing some great work over on YouTube, providing fresh takes on old games by unlocking their cameras to see what's going on behind the scenes. In the latest episode they take a gander at Metal Gear Solid, and get David Hayter to? guest star brief??ly, in-character as Solid Snake.

In this episode they visit some highly requested scenes here answering questions like "where do the guards come from during the Snake/Meryl standoff (they warp in from two positions), "how do elevators work?," (they don't actually move, they warp in new maps), is Sni??????????????????????????per Wolf actually ??rendered when she attacks you from afar?"(yes), or "what's behind you when you first start the game?" (a black void).

It's insane ho??w well optimized this game is,?? especially given how ahead of its time it was. The developers came up with a bunch of neat tricks (like less strenuous puddle reflections) and only ever show you what you need to see.

The post David Hayter briefly goes in-character a??s Snake to revisit the first Metal Gear Solid appeared first on Destructoid.

Have you ever been gifted a game riper than a Christmas Eve camembert?

When giving gifts at Christmas, it is the thought that counts. Especially in the time of trophies a?nd achievements, unwrapping a mediocre game from a well-meaning great-aunt who asked the nice shop assistant for recommendations is not a big deal at all. However, it's still possible for a gift to be such a misfire that you wonder why your poor relative didn't just make life e?asier for themselves and get you a voucher. Or nothing at all.

When it comes to my Christmas duds, I cannot palm the responsibility for past Christmas disappointments off onto anyone else. All of the games that left a bitterer taste in my mouth than mushy Brussel sprouts did so because I did poor research when putting to??gether my Christmas list, and Santa dutifully complied with what I had scribbled down. Now I (mostly) know better than to buy licensed games just because of the franchise they are attached to, or to buy a game because the cover is pretty. But that has been a tough lesson to learn.

So, which shoddy games did I struggle through with a sour face, one childhood ?Christmas Day? Keep rea??ding, and contribute yours in the comments!

1. The Simpsons Skateboarding (PS2, 2002)

As you can probably tell from the header image, I am that asshat who thinks it's clever to make Simpsons references several times a day. Well, I know it's asshat behaviour, but it's become so natural, I can't help myself anymore. So I did get suckered into purchasing a fair amount of dodgy Simpsons merchandise, though tha??nkfully not all o??f it.

Many Simpsons fans regard The Simpsons Wrestling as their nemesis, referring to the total inability to have any sort of functional wrestling bout, overpowered moves and characters, and toe-curling dialogue. I actually enjoyed the game a little (just a little) as a wee bairn. The one game that I couldn't stand was The Simpsons Skateboarding.

For the most part, I found the game unplayable. Grinding was a chore, eschewing the fluid movements you'd see in the Tony Hawk series. It felt like you were riding a piece of plywood with wheels stapled on, rather than a legitimate skateboard – and, I mean, Bart hardly looked li??ke he invested in a full Element set-up, but playing on a wonky board is hardly fun. I barely gathered any in-game money to progress the story, since I just rode around Springfield most of the time, trying in vain to get used to the control scheme. I'm aware that licensed games are largely poor, but this was a spectacularly awful effort, regardless.

2. Rollercoaster World (PS2, 2003)

This is not an objectively ??bad game, and neither is entry #3 on my list below. However, at the time, I genuinely thought this was an appalling game, so I was shocked to learn that others had a great time with it. While I can sort of understand that some parts of it may simply not be my cup of tea, I still thought it was a needlessly frustrating exper??ience.

Theme Park and Theme Park World are two of my favourite games, as they expertly combine a dry sense of humour with accessible, management sim gameplay. I revelled in rigging all the arcade games, making my chips salty to the point of endangering human life, and firing all my janitors in one fell swoop, so that the toilets deteriorated to mere portals of open sewage. Erecting twisty-turny rollercoasters was a fun perk, but that was never why I paid the cost of admission for the Theme Park games.

It makes sense, therefore, that I wouldn't enjoy a game that focuses on building the rollercoasters. Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 was too intricate and difficult for my liking, even though I could appreciate it as a brilliant game for those who could zoom in on that level of detail. But Rollercoaster World? I utterly detested the G-force system for building rollercoasters, as I could never figure out how to make the rides thrilling without concussing half of my clientele. It didn't?? feel fair, and it didn't feel fun. Being a little kid with no patience, I quickly discarded the game, and sold it two years ago for mere pence at the local CeX.

3. The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (Game Boy Color, 2001)

This was the Christmas gift that kept on giving, as I have had only fleeting desires to play any form of Zelda game since. I have no doubt that it is a rollicking time for people who have a clue about the backstory of Link and the princess, and don't need a gentle nudge or twenty in the right direction. But it served as a disheart??ening introduction to the series f??or me.

I remember wandering aimlessly around the village, just chopping vegetation down and hoarding rupees. Whenever I got into the first dungeon, I had no idea what I was doing and inevitably died about halfway in. I resorted to playing it as a primitive version of Stardew Valley, "harvesting" pla?nts and talking to villagers until I got bored and switched it off ?a couple of hours later. It's no wonder that I was put off the entire series for quite some time.

When I did try Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess around seven years later, my nervousness around the series was compounded, as I found the opening levels did nothing to engage me. One of these days, I will get round to buying a New 3DS and picking up Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask: then, hopefully, the curse will be lifted.

Which games were a complete let-down for you on Christmas Day? Did you ask for them, or were they a total surprise? Let me know in the comments down below!

The post Chri??stmas duds: which terrible games have you received for Christmas? appeared first on Destructoid.

It's beginning to look a lot like Inaba

Quite shamefully, I only saw Die Hard for the first time two years ago, in December and in a packed movie theatre. It was only then that I could fully appreciate the classic argument that rages about the film. No, not whether Hans Gruber is actually a bit tasty (RIP Alan Rickman), but whether Die Hard is a Christmas film or not. 

The argument is really just an example of how the seasons and religious holidays interact with both films and computer games. If we happen to play something during our Christmas break, or it happens to be on in the background while we're opening our presents, then of course we begin to associat?e it with Santa and his reindeer. In my case, there are quite a few games that I will always look at as Christmas games, whether it's due to their atmosphere, certain levels or simply when I first played them. So, cut yourself a slice of stollen and pour a glass of mulled wine, and let's get festive.

To find out about the (largely not very good) Die Hard games for various systems, I'd recommend watching this video and this video.

1. SSX 3 (PlayStation ??2/GameCube/Xbox/Game Boy Advance/Gizmondo, EA Canada, 2003)

I'm not fortunate enough to have lived in any place where there is powdered snow on the ground throughout the whole of December. My hometown occasionally gets a bit of snow in January, but I've seen perhaps...one white Christmas there? Where I currently live, it just rains all the time, and when I lived in the south of Germany, the snow was sludgy and my bones hurt because of how cold it was. Anyway, time for less typical British talk about the weather and more talk about games. A game that revolves around snow typifies Christmas for me, and SSX 3 is precisely that game.

SSX 3 and its predecessor, SSX Tricky, weren't just games that allowed me to enjoy frosty surrounds with the radiator cranked up and a mug of tea; they are special to me because they were the first games I was genuinely any good at. As a child – and this is something that STILL comes back to haunt me  – I didn't own a wide variety of games, and played overwhelmingly during the school holidays. This meant that I was quite weak compared to my cohort, who would play a range of classics for hours after school and every weekend. So I carried this millstone around my neck of being "terrible at games". But I did play the SSX g??ames for hours in a row during these holidays, if trophies had been a thing back in 2003, I definitely would have got Platinum in both of them.

But why is SSX 3 on this list instead of Tricky? Well, I think I played Tricky a lot during the summer holidays, so it got that tag attached to it instead. I also remember a level that involved snowboarding through arid canyons in Tricky, so it felt less tied to winter. It might have even been because SSX 3 felt more sedate and peaceful, as Christmas should be, while Moby Jones had definitely downed one too many Red Bulls in Tricky.

2. Pokémon Crystal (Game Boy Color, Game Freak, 2001)

As a child, Christmas time was always Pokémon time. Until I got Pokémon Yellow and Pokémon Pinball for Christmas 2000, I was the insufferable kid on the playground who would beg to borrow other people's handhelds. While those two games should, by rights, be Christmas games in my head, I actually played them to death the following summer instead. As a result, they will always remind me of a carefree summer holiday full of Mini Milk ice lollies, potato smiley faces and re-runs of the worst docu-soap ever made, Airline. 

But its older brother, Pokémon Crystal, strongly reminds me of the jolly fat man. I think by then I knew just how great playing through the whole of a Pokémon game would be, so I was hyped about getting it and spent a lot of chestnut-roasting time tied to my Game Boy. For reference, my Game Boy Color was always plugged into the wall at home so I wouldn't bankrupt my mother burning through millions of AA batteries (she got wise to rechargeable batteries by the time both me and my sister got Nintendo Wii). Of course, I soon realised Crystal was pretty much the same game as Pokémon Silver, which I'd already gotten for a previous Christmas, but hey, I was a dumb nine-year-old, and hey, it wasn't my hard-earned salary I was squandering. I was the WOR?ST child.

3. Persona 4 Golden (PlayStation Vita, Atlus, 2012)

This is a fairly recent Christmas association for me, in part because I spent all of last Christmas – aside from the 25th, of course – playing it from start to finish. The PS TV is the perfect "portable home console", if such a thing can even be said to exist, so in a genius/idiot move, I brought it back to England with me. And I quickly resumed being The Worst Child Ever™ by telling my sister "No, you can't 'have a go' while I'm in the middle of the Kusumi-no-Okami boss battle, please go back to Mario and Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games".

It's also very Christmassy to me because I had already played the original Persona 4 release, so my goal was to experience everything new to the Vita version. This meant going on the ski-trip, as well as going for the True ending. Of course, all modern Persona games have integrated seasons, so?? th?ere is always a Christmas section, but going away with the lads to faff about on wooden planks felt like a genuine Yuletide celebration. Admittedly, a Yuletide celebration with fighting and bloodshed (and GOOD GRIEF I hated going through that dungeon with limited SP – by far my least favourite in any of the games that I've played so far), but a cosy celebration nonetheless.

A special recommendation

OK, so by this point, your blood is probably boiling from the amount of CLEARLY non-Christmas games that I have haphazardly associated with the holidays. So, how about I r??ecommend something that is genuinely tied to Xmas?

NiGHTS Into Dreams is the perfect game to play once the advent calendars and elves on shelves come out, even if you don't buy the Christmas-themed sampler disc. I had the pleasure of playing it on the Saturn at an exhibition a few months ago, and all the acrobatic, fast-paced gameplay is a great distraction from figuring out what to put under the tree for Great Aunt Flo (another set of knitting needles, perhaps?). What's more, you don't have to splash out on an unloved-thus-now-quite-rare-and-expensive console from yesteryear to experience the game: it's available on Steam,? including the Christmas ?Nights additional material, for less than the cost of a giant Toblerone. 

***

As we've seen, what counts as "festive" is very subjective and often has a lot to do with childhood memories. I have a lot of fond recollections of Decembers growing up, and a lot of this is all thanks to video games. This Christmas, I'll be following in the footsteps of Die Hard somewhat by finishing Metal Gear Solid 2 HD – because, really, getting the hostages out of Big Shell feels like Jo??hn McClane freeing his wife from Nakatomi Plaza. That, and because "Christmas spirit" is absolutely what you make of it.

Oh, and Die Hard is DEFINITELY a Christmas film.

Which games do you associate with Christmas? Are there any games that you play every December? Let me know in the comments down below!

The post Christmas games that aren’t Christmas games appeared first on Destructoid.

Giant moogle not included

Fine figure creators Play Arts Kai have released images of the next release in their long-running Final Fantasy VII range. The next character in line for the Play Arts trea??tment is short-tempered sky pilot Cid Highwind.

Cid is rocking his slightly less grizzled Advent Children look, which sees his tatter??ed old uniform and super-high pants replaced with a slightly hipper blue shirt, tied jacket ensemble. His?? overall demeanor here is a little cooler and sexier, as well as seeing him sans cigarette.

Standing around 10.5 inches tall, Cid come??s with a selection of interchangeable hands and weaponry. Also along for the ride is lil' bastard Cait Sith. Cait is sadly missing his ride-on moogle, but still makes for a fun sidekick. Cait Sith also has interchangeable hands and comes with his trusty megaphone.

The 2-in-1 pack is currently available for pre-order on hobby store AmiAmi, on offer at ¥11,820 (about $100 or &poun??d;80). It is scheduled for release in April 2018.

Play Arts Kai Cid Highwind/Cait Sith [AmiAmi]

The post Play Arts Kai unveil figures of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children’s Cid and Cait Sith appeared first on Destructoid.

From the sublime to the silly, here are a collection of tunes that would make Professor K proud

I am fond of a video game mashup or two, so I was stoked when I heard 2 Mello (the composer for 2064: Read Only Memories) was releasing a Streets of Rage mashup album this week. When it came out on Tuesday, I downloaded it right away for listening to during workouts, and it hasn't disappointed me. He has also released a Notorious B.I.G. and Earthbound mashup album, which is consistently great.

My interest in mashups has been reawakened, so I thought I'd check out what else is out there on SoundCloud and YouTube?. And boy, was I in for a treat. Spanning the thoroughly brilliant and the brilliantly daft, there's a lot out there to listen to when you want to let the twin worlds of video games and music collide. Below are a few starter pick??s that put a smile on my face.

1. "Tetromino Crusher", Undertale x Tetris, NoteBlock

I knew, as soon as I heard it, that "Metal Crusher" sounded like Soviet music, but I never p??ut two and two together and realised that the Tetris theme would fit it perfectly. So props to NoteBlock for figuring that out and making the tunes blend together so well! I'm not the biggest fan of the synthy direction they went in with the mashup – I think I would have rather heard the original pieces smashed together – but the arrangement gets full marks.

2. "Crash Dat", Crash Bandicoot x Soulja Boy, SteveOfWarr

Yeah...time to start with the silly ones. If you're around my age, you will remember "Crank Dat" as the song that inevitably got put on when everyone was blind rolling drunk. Then everyone tries to Superman at the same time, in ??different directions. Then someon?e gets punched in the face. Well, you can relive two different levels of your youth without getting a honking black eye by listening to this track! Delightful.

3. "Hotline Spikes", Hotline Miami x Death Grips, Sadboy Sheldon

The soundtrack to Hotline Miami is genuinely good "everyday" music, and I have had it on in the background while finishing off uni work. "Crystals" by M|O|O|N and "Deep Cover" by Sun Araw are my favourite tracks from the original game, but this mix of "Miami 2" and "Spikes" by Death Grips works equally well. I often walk to work with this playing on my phone, because the spacy electro backing sort of cancels out MC Ride's aggression – which is better for first thing in the morning than "GUILLOTIIIIIIIINE".

4. "Walking on Sherbet Land", Mario Kart 64 x Katrina & The Waves, FizzyNote

Oooh, this one gets me giddy. Katrina & the Waves are a bit of a cheesefest, but have a special place on British radio for getting us a hallowed Eurovision win in 1997 with "Love Shine a Light" (this was before we pissed off the entirety of Europe and everyone started voting against us...mumble mumble rigged mumble mumble). The Mario Kart OSTs have the same kind of cheerful, bouncy flare as Katrina & the Waves's most famous track, "Walking on Sunshine", so it makes a lot of sense to combine the two songs. I dare you to be miserable listening to this. It's like a Solero lolly for your ears. 

5. "Get Gerudo", The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time  x Daft Punk, Greg Wood

I think most people are quite bored of hearing "Get Lucky" used in anything and everythi??ng, but this fresh remix isn't too overwrought and puts a nice spin on the original. And the tracks blend together like peanut butter and chocolate. Good job, Greg!  

6. "Piece of My Mind", Lisa: the Painful RPG x Dr. Dre, Overl00k

LISA: the Painful RPG, like Undertale, was created by a one-man team (Austin Jorgensen), including the music. Austin has become one of my favourite video game composers thanks to LISA, because he knew exactly how to use the soundtrack to portray a bleak hellscape, where men are doomed to fight forever over porno mags and heroin. Adding some Dr. Dre – he of "Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang" fame (check out the single art) – over the top is a nice touch.

7. Life Will Change (Full Cornered Version), Persona 5 x Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, Tsunscreen

Yeah, this works, alright! The parallels between Persona 5 and the Ace Attorney series are pretty obvious (fighting for justice, fancy attire, dramatic musical interludes), so it's great to see the two together. We've had Phoenix Wright and Professor Layton cross-over games, so a Persona Q with Phoenix Wright characters wouldn't be half bad. I'm not? the only one who wants that, right?

*tumbleweed*

8. "Holla If Ya Hear Me in the Corridors of Time", Chrono Trigger x 2Pac, DatManOverDer

2Pac is kind of a staple in the mashup world, but Chrono Trigger is not a frontrunner when it comes to the games side of things. Still, Chrono Trigger is a classic Squaresoft JRPG, so it deserves some? love. I've yet to play it, but if this tune is anything to go by, I will be swept away by the atmosphere.

9. "3005 PM", Animal Crossing x Childish Gambino, pomelojuice

There's something very fitting about putting one of the dreamy AC songs together with Childish Gambino, one of the more mellow rappers on this list. While "Walking on Sherbert Land" is a bright orange fizzy drink, this?? mashup is a soothing cup of chamomile tea. 

10. "If I Could I Wo?uld Play Mii Channel", Mii Channel (Wii) x Blackbear, miyu

I couldn't round off this list without a Wii hardware reference, right? But instead of going with one of the cheesier Wii Shop mashups (and Lord knows I love the "Hotline Bling" mashup), I decided to go with something a little more R&B-influenced that also pays homage to the defunct Mii Cha??nnel. I have fond memories of downloading Mii models based on various celebrities and pop culture icons, and people used to put a bucketload of time and effort into creating the most life-like and/or grotesque avatars they could muster. I'll never forget you, Kermit Mii.

Do you have any favourite video game mashups that I haven't mentioned? Which is your favourite track on the list? Let me know in the comments down below!

The post Video game mashups to brighten up your day appeared first on Destructoid.

Titles to make your nose bleed

There are some seriously weird games out there – this is what you quic??kly learn when you start collecting them, even with a focus on specific consoles. There's always at least one or two developers, ??big or small, that like to take serious risks with their releases, sprinkling vast amounts of What The Fuckery wherever they tread.

But games can be weird because of more than just their context. The context of when I bought some of the games in my collection is truly bizarre, and while some of the titles don't quite fit the rank of "hidden gems", some were?? never released in some regions for various reasons. I thought at?? first that my PS1-PS3 collection (the main consoles I collect for) was as bland as butter, but on closer inspection, it has its fair share of "What the hell is that?!" moments, too. 

So, in honour of the recent release of Season 2 of Stranger Things on Netflix, here are five games pulled from my shelves (and one from my Steam library) that, whether they're good or bad, are thoroughly "strange". Note that my list doesn't cover some of the genuine PlayStation oddballs like Mr Moskeeto, No One Can Stop Mr. Domino! and LSD: Dream Emulator, simply be??cause I haven't gotten my mitts ?on them yet.

1. Galerians (PlayStation, Polygon Magic/Agetec, 1999)

Let's start off with something fittingly strange and gory. Galerians is a fairly well-known contribution to the PS1-era trend towards survival horror. While Resident Evil provided the player with all manner of artillery, with Silent Hill discouraging the player from battle with its wonky melee mechanics, Galerians didn't give the player any arms at all. Instead, you can make people's heads explode with your mind control powers, while making sure not to over-indulge, lest you give yourself fatal brain damage. Yes, this feels oddly aligned with Stranger Things the more words I type.

Galerians unfortunately never became as popular as Resident Evil and Silent Hill; this was not helped by the fact that the PS2 sequel received some very poor reviews. But with the limitations of the period's signature "tank controls",  which ups the fear factor, and...erm, Dorothy, it's worth adding Galerians to your strange collection.

STRANGENESS LEVELS: Killing goons with telekinesis

2. Hellnight (PlayStation, Atlus, 1998)

Hellnight is "strange" on two different levels, even though it contains elements of horror that have since become bog-standard. The nuts and bolts of the story are fairly straightforward: you wake up in post-apocalyptic Tokyo on a wrecked train, with all of your fellow passengers dead. All except for a schoolgirl, who becomes your companion. You bot?h try to escape Tokyo for a brighter future, all while a horrific creature follows your every move.

If you're about to say that it sounds like Atlus stole the blueprints for Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, you're mistaken. This is one of the first horror games to truly play with the concept that what you can't see is scarier than what you can see, as well as dabbling in perma-death. Throughout the game, the protagonist has a grand total of zero weapons, and if you encounter the? creature lusting after your flesh, you can almost guarantee you'll lose your current party member. And if you lose them, they're gone forever.

You can pick up three different replacements if Naomi, your schoolgirl team-mate, dies. Some of them are more useful than others (one of partners you can meet in the middle of the game has a rocket launcher). You do eventually get the ability to defend yourself...to an extent, but if you lose all your partners, t??hen the next time you encounter the monster, it's curtains for you. 

The other strange characteristic is that it was never released in the US, though it did see release in Europe. Maybe Atlus assumed that the mechanics would make the game too hard for Western gamers, but decided to try their hand on the PAL market, anyway. Who knows? This might be a title you can't play without an emulator, a modded console, or without buying a PAL PS1/PS2, but never fear: there are plenty of Let's Plays on YouTube.

STRANGENESS LEVELS: Looking at the Demogorgon. Don't look at him! DON'T!

3. Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer (PlayStation 2, Treyarch, 2002)

OK, time for a bit of backstory, since you'll be certainly wondering why I've leapt f??rom exploding brains and impending doom to ocean spray.

Rewind back to 2004. As a kid, my parents made the grave mistake of letting me watch MTV2. That's where I saw Viva La Bam for the first time, and, of course, I loved the immensely childish hi-jinks. This led to me watching the extreme sports channel on Sky, and falling in love with skateboarding. I then went out and bought a handful of snowboarding and skateboarding games, and the SSX ser??ies is, to this day, probably the only series that I am genuinely good at.

Fast-forward to 2017 – I was considering getting myself a longboard, but was too worried about grown-up things like missing work from a broken ankle to actually go through with it. I was now 25 and found the cutscenes in THUG2 juvenile. But for some reason, I decided to buy a copy of Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer for my ?PS2 when I saw it goi??ng cheap on eBay.

I could justify this by saying that I still enjoy extreme sports games, but I also bought Skate not long afterwards, and actually found it a bit tedious. I could reason it by saying that Kelly Slat?er seems like an effortlessly cool guy, ever since he appeared in the video for one of my? favourite Garbage songs. But Kelly Slater feels like the surfing counterpart of Tony Hawk: still an awesome dude, but not really a draw for buying games anymore.

Given that my boyfriend picked this off my shelf and, to put it politely, expressed confusion as to why I'd bought this game, it is definitely a strange one. Not because it's a bad game, but because I decided to buy it in 2017. It's totally strange that I bought it now and not 15 years ago.

STRANGENESS LEVELS: Dustin's perm mullet 

4. Evil Twin: Cyprien's Chronicles (PlayStation 2, Ubisoft, 2001)

Cyprien's Chronicles is, to be blunt, an ugly-looking game. It's almost no wonder that it was only released in the PAL region (there wasn't even a Japan release). It also has the honour of being one of the last games released for the Dreamcast in Europe; I bought the PS2 version as a nice little curio for my coll?ection about a year ago.

Cyprien's Chronicles is an interesting platformer in that it also explores themes of horror from the perspective of a child. In this regard, it would be a good companion to more recent titles, such as Little Nightmares. You play as an orphan, Cyprien, who is banished to the world of Undabed (??????????????????????????geddit?) and must rescue his teddy bear, Lenny. 

While it belongs within the ranks of the many mediocre platformers released for the PS2 (and I have plenty of those, such as Herdy Gerdy and Whiplash), it is really striking because of its art style and perspective. Horror and creepiness through a younger protagonist's eyes is not a new theme, but Cyprien's Chronicles is a game that really takes this and runs with it – check it out if you can, or watch it being played online.

STRANGENESS  LEVELS: Those rumours that Jean-Ralphio from Parks and Recreation and Steve Harrington are related

5. Dropsy (PC, Tendershoot, 2015)

Clowns are the creepy figure du jour, thanks to the new feature film version of It (which includes Finn Wolfhard from Stranger Things as Richie Tozier). But maybe some clowns just want to make friends? Maybe the "evil clown" trope is harm??ful to some of these gentle beings?

Dropsy is deeply unsettling not because the clown is the antagonist, but because the clown is the protagonist that everybody unfairly hates. Poor Dropsy has been blamed for a circus fire that killed his own mother; not only is he forced to start his life al?l over again, but he is ostracised by everyone.

The game is a quirkly, colourful point-and-click adventure, with communcation enabled via pictures rather than words. The game as a whole is genuinely unsettling, not just because of the creep factor, but because of how surprising it is to feel sorry for a Bogeyman-type character. The dissonance between what you expect to feel and what you actually end up feeling is as strong as I've ever felt in a game,?? and that's what makes it strange.

STRANGENESS LEVELS: Befriending townsfolk with hugs...and Eggo waffles

6. Project Rub (Nintendo DS, Sonic Team, 2004)

Project Rub is called Feel the Magic: XY/XX in the US, probably because you guys had more sense to hide how sleazy this game is. I really don't know why I bought it and, in hindsight, it's a game that has not aged well at all, thanks to the creepy content matter. Not creepy like Dropsy. A totally different kind of creepy.

Project Rub is a bunch of mini-games released early in the DS's life cycle that involve a man trying to win over the girl of his dreams. These games reflect the man trying to convince the girl to date him in numerous bizarre way, such as traversing winding pathways suspended above buildings on a unicycle, and fending off a stampede of bulls. It's almost trying to be a WarioWare game, but with a slightly more adult theme.

I wouldn't go so far as to say Project Rub has become inappropriate, but the noughties were saturated with rom-coms, and not just rom-coms where the woman was on an equal footing with the man; there was a lot of "chasing" (see the "manic pixie dream girl" trope). So, I don't think you could get away with a re-release of Project Rub. 

STRANGENESS LEVELS: Snogging your secondary school boyfriend to Toto's Africa

What are the strangest games in your collections? What makes a game "strange" by your standards? Let me know in the comments down below!

The post The ‘Stranger Things’ in my game collection appeared first on Destructoid.

Answer: probably, but we can do plenty to delay its demise

Earlier this week, EA announced that Visceral Games, the studio responsible for a new Star Wars game under Amy Hennig, was being shut down with immediate effect. This led to a lot of speculation as to whether this was the end for the fully single-player experience. There was speculation over whether this was greed on the part of EA, whether the consumer is at fault for not supporting one of the oldest formats of ga???ming, or whether other factors were at play.

Setting aside the fact that we can't extrapolate from one studio shutdown tha??t an entire?? genre is doomed, single-player games are clearly less popular than they were 20 years ago, if you take a look at the different formats of gaming that are available nowadays. In past times, many people simply couldn't play multiplayer games, even if they wanted to, because the neighbour's kid had to go to their dad's at the weekend, or their siblings were too young to "get" how a controller worked. Now, servers full of opponents from around the continent, or even around the world, are available for bouts 24/7, and the vast majority of people have a good enough internet connection to support this (ahem, excluding myself).

This alone shouldn't mean that single-player games are dead in the water, though. There are enough people who yearn for simple, old-style Resident Evil games, or JRPGs that can only have a multiplayer experience forcefully tacked onto them. However, there are enough further?? problems with single-player games, beyond sheer popularity, that they are in grave danger, if both studios and consumers don't go out of their way to support the format. So, what can we do to keep the games of our childhood going? A few things, pr?obably.

Isn't this down to studio greed?

It's certainly the case that in the past, studios have made what seem to be irresponsible or even completely bonkers decisions with their cash. The process of creating FFXV dragged on for years; games have been released unfinished due to a mix of studio impatience and maverick creativity spiraling out of control. Projects that should have been studio-backed have be?en exiled to ?Kickstarters. But what level of incompetence can a studio get away with?

For big studios like Sony, there a?re limits, they have shareholders and auditors to please, after all. Even smaller studios have to keep their investors happy, or the plug could be pulled quite unceremoniously and suddenly. So, if entire genres are failing, it won't solve anything to look just at the studios, since they can't, realistically, all be cultivating Scrooge McDuck-style mountains of money. The consumer-studio relationship, and the actions of the consumers themselves, also need to be put under the microscope.

This is probably not an accurate representation of video game executives at their Christmas parties

What are multiplayer games getting right?

Aside from the sheer numbers of people playing series like World of Warcraft, Call of Duty and Overwatch, massively-multiplayer and even local multiplayer games (to a lesser extent) have built their model in a financially clever way. While microtransactions always make customers grit their teeth and clench their fists, they generally garner a little bit more acceptance than in single-player games; they give you an added edge over other people, not over the game itself.

Furthermore, the Blizzard model is absolutely genius in that they can keep a single game going for decades through cost-effective, high-q?uality storyline top-ups and new characters. On the other hand, the traditional model for single player games was that they got released, and that was that: back to the drawing board to create a fresh game afterwards. Ev??en if it was a sequel that they went on to make next, there had to be new assets, new plotlines and even new characters, or the fandom would cry foul. And starting more-or-less from scratch costs a lot of money.

How games have already adapted

To be fair, single-player games have already, quite noticeably, become more like multiplayer games in recent years. While paid DLC was still somewhat taboo ten years ago, it is now an accepted part of the landscape, and people even welcome new paid content eleven months after initial release. Microtransactions leave a bitter taste in g??amers' mouths??, but are tolerated as long as they accelerate progress, rather than acting as a paywall.

So, is the extra income from this enough? Of course, it really helps, but the issue that is still there is the need for new content all the time, which can't always be fulfilled with single-player games. People get bored of multiplayer gam?es a lot slower, because there is always something new around the corner, thanks to new opponents and new morsels of challenge.

There are a couple of ways of injecting this fresh content into single-player games without breaking the bank: capitalising on online play; or making game series entries flow into each other. Metal Gear Solid V (which is taking up all my free time at the minute) does the first one really well, by supplying online challenges with rewards, even if you're not in multiplayer mode. The fact that the game is a base management simulator really helps, too, because there is the potential to keep building up your base forever. The time for single-player games with a Fin end screen is ailing in particular, even if Persona 5 suggests otherwise.

Base management is tough when half of your recruits fall to their deaths...

Regarding games that flow into each other, I'll provide an example. Imagine the Silent Hill series was launched now, rather than in 1999. Silent Hill 3 would logically be released after 1, and 2 would either be DLC to 1 or come much later. Silent Hill 3 is built in the same world as 1, and this would be capitalised upon, allowing for a lot of assets and ideas to be recycled easily. And even though these would still be two separate games, they would bleed into each other, allowing for a lot of side-opportunities for Konami to earn money through extra content (what about Heather's earlier years? What about her time with Harry, moving from town to town?). Ideally, material linking 1 and 3 would be sp??read out evenly between both core releases.

By minimising the need to start from scratch, games become more profitable. But this requires people to be in?vested in the characters and the story – and this is ultimately where single-player games have a trick up their sleeve.

Making people fall in love with videoga??me characters

JRPGs understand the pure single-player model better than any other sub-genre, and this is because they encourage people to obsess over specific characters. If you play JRPGs, you cannot tell me that your heart isn't still breaking into a million pieces over and over again over a certain death in a certain Final Fantasy game that is numbered between 6 and 8, and if you play Persona games, you will probably fight tooth and nail for your waifu Chie/Ann/Aigis?/Marie (and I will fight for my right to tell you that you have a screw loose if your waifu is Marie).

Words can't describe how much I dislike Marie.

The trigger for people wanting to consume more content is wanting to know more about the characters. Did they carry on fighting for justice after the original story mode was over? Did they ever get together with the spiky-haired brat they were flirting with for three in-game months? Did they ever refine their katsu curry recipe? Never underestimat??e a nerd's need for more (superfluous) information, and studios can use that weakness to siphon money from people's wallets. And, in fact, this is an area where multiplayer games reveal their weaknesses, because (apart from Blizzard – damn you?, Blizzard) story-telling tends to give way to action.

Adjusting expectations

If none of this helps, then it would come down to a simple balancing of input and output. If studios aren't being wastef??ul, in terms of sending their staff on recon visits to casinos every afternoon, then large expenditure will be down to graphics, storytelling, character models, etc. The more refinement the player wants and demands, the more it will cost. A price hike may be in order.

A few fairly large studios re-purpose indie games for the mass market, e.g. Devolver Digital's release of Hatoful Boyfriend on the PS Vita and PS4. They do seem to go down as well as the bird seed on Legumentine's Day in the aforementioned game, so maybe a reversion to simpler games with a more moderate price tag is the way to go instead. But will the consumer realist??ically welcome indie-style titles for every release? Will they be happy that their current-gen console is no longer being pushed to the limit with jaw-dropping visuals? I'm personally unconvinced.

The end may be inevitable

Unfortunately, it may be the case that people are simply becoming tired of single-player campaigns, even if they don't want to admit that to themselves. They surreptitiously only play GTA V for the online multiplayer components, and would never think of playing Watch Dogs 2 without mowi?ng down other player-controlled hackers in a 4x4. And even if players do want single-player games, that needs to convert to cold, hard cash – studios can't survive on fans' love. Fans need to go out and buy as much content as they can to keep the games going, at least for a little while longer. And even then, we may see them ?collapse for good in ten years' time.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to play the single-player campaign of Metal Gear Solid V. Which I got for free thro??ugh PS Plus. Hypocrisy, here I come!

Do you think that the single-player format is in danger? Do you think the problem lies with the consumer or the studios? Let me know in the comments down below!

The post Is the end nigh for single-player games? appeared first on Destructoid.