#i got the sims for ps2 on an emulator and was playing that the other day and my god the FEELINGS i got trampled with | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

aeonknight · 8 months ago

Text

Thoughts on the Nintendo Direct!

New Mario and Luigi game. Cool! Let's hope it's good, unlike the last few

Don't really care about Nintendo World Championship or the Fairy Tale game.

That RPG looks cool, might pick it up if it goes on sale.

I don't give a shit about Nintendo Switch Sports

Mio looks cool, I think it's a metroidvania from the brief look but it's hard to tell. The art is lovely though and I'm almost certainly going to grab it at some point. Definitely giving Hollow Knight which is one of my favorite games.

Don't care about Disney, I honestly don't know anyone who played Illusion Island.

Honestly the Hello Kitty game looks kinda cute, might pick it up for my sister because she loves Sanrio.

Don't care about Looney Tunes or sports games so this does nothing for me.

Among Us stuff that we already knew, nothing surprising.

Ooh you can tell this guy worked on Fairy Tale lmao. Honestly I don't care about another farming sim monster collector. Somehow that specific genre mix has become overplayed. Also the name is dumb.

Oh, I was hoping for a new Donkey Kong Country game but it's a remake. Eh. I don't really care about it unless they add something new which they probably won't.

Oh yay, another remake of a game I don't care about. They'll probably charge full price for it, too. The pixel art is very pretty though. Why are they releasing 3 before 1 and 2 though? I'm happy for the Dragon Quest fans, just not a series I like. Maybe if they're not full price I'll try them. Maybe I'll just emulate the originals.

A funko game? Conceptually kinda funny actually. It's giving Lego Dimensions. But I hate Funko and think they look like garbage so I won't under any circumstances be buying this game.

Pretty sure we already knew Luigi's Mansion 2 was coming to switch but it's my favorite game in the series so I'm still excited.

This reads like a game from the ps2 era that never got adapted in English and finally the cult fandom is going to be excited but I have never heard of Denpa Men so I don't care.

Not a metal slug fan so I don't care.

I tried Darkest Dungeon, wasn't for me. But I know it's really good and popular so I'm still excited for other people for the sequel, but I hope it's not an exclusive.

I don't have NSO so I don't care about NSO stuff. Also I've already emulated Zero Mission and that's the only one of these I care about.

Another entry in a series I've not heard of, and Marona's voice is really annoying, so no chance I pick it up.

I don't play fighting games or beat em ups.

New Mario Party. Rad. I wish I were more excited but we've had exactly one decent entry in the last dozen so... not optimistic. Playable Ninji is fun though. Motion controls are gross though. Don't care about the 20 player mode, it looks like just a minigame rush and they made it 20 player so they could technically say the new game is 20 players.

NEW 2D ZELDA LET'S GO! And Zelda is playable? Amazing. I'm not the biggest fan of the artstyle, it's not bad just not my favorite, but still I'm excited. I doubt it'll be very... plotty, but still cool. The lack of actual combat is kinda dumb though.

Don't give a shit about Just Dance. Or pop music, actually. Also their subscription is ridiculous and awful.

A Horizon Lego game? That's. Not something I think anyone wanted. Especially since there hasn't been a good Lego game in years.

I don't really care about Stray being ported to Switch. Good game but one I've already played, I'm not going to buy it again.

LotR life sim? Sure. Why not. Might as well. I don't know, it's fine but not like. Life changing or anything.

I would care more about Ace Attorney Investigations if... you know... the games were any good. Unfortunately they suck so whatever. It's nice that Investigations 2 is finally available in English officially though.

Generic anime tactics game. It's giving Danganronpa but worse. Which makes sense because it's made by the DR devs. Maybe I'll play it, maybe there won't be any transphobia this time.

Another RPG I don't care about.

Prime 4. Huh. I mean cool I guess but like. I really wish they'd rerelease 2 and 3 first. Also this 100% confirms to me that they're not planning on releasing a new console soon. No way they'd announce this big of a release and have it be on a console that they're going to make obsolete soon.

0 notes

lordfrezon · 2 years ago

Text

I played Ace Combat 4 like 20 years ago and also like a month ago. Given it’s like my 3rd favorite video game of all time, I figure I should write a review of it.

Ace Combat 4: 10/10

This is the plane sim. Every one since has attempted to emulate it in some way. Some have done a good job. Many have failed. But this is the one.

Ace Combat 4 is a 2001 game released for the PS2. It was my favorite game as a kid, better than Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, any Crash Bandicoot, Halo, whatever. This was the one I liked the most. I wasn’t great at it, but it was great for me.

After watching a bunch of Max0r’s videos on other Ace Combat games I played those, and also Project Wingman, the current #4 on my Games of All Time list. Zero was fantastic, one of the best games ever made. Five was great, with the best story of any of these games. Seven was a game I played. Project Wingman was a nostalgia dream trip and in VR. So when I got my Steam Deck and installed a PS2 emulator, I was kinda worried. Would Ace Combat 4 hold up to my memories of it? Would it meet my expectations for my favorite game as a kid?

It didn’t. It broke them.

The game is insanely good and it’s crazy just how much fun I had playing it. It starts off with bangers, gives you more bangers, ramps up with bangers, comes down with bangers, and ends with the pair of bangers that is Farbanti and Megalith. There are some missions I was like “urgh”, Tango Line and the balloon one come to mind, but even those have some cool parts, Tnago Line’s got Stonehenge and the Balloon one has a sick fighter battle and also another Nagase.

But more than that is how the story is told to you. Because I remembered the story being pretty good, but not that good. Like, go watch the first cutscene from the game and try telling me that the story isn’t at least interesting. It’s more than that. It’s fantastic. There’s character growth, a story of how people deal with war, how people deal with knowing their oppressors, the people they hate, and learning they’re just people. Loss, love, joy. It’s wonderful.

And the music, it’s so good. From The Northern Eye to Comona to Invincible Fleet to the one everyone loves, Megalith, it’s so good. Later games might have better tracks, sure, but these ones are the original. The GOATs. They’re still great.

This isn’t a remotely objective review. I don’t think I can be objective about this game. It’s too much a part of me. I can say if you’re going to play one plane sim, you should probably play Project Wingman, it’s by far the most polished and looks the best. But if you want to play more, this is where you should start. It deserves the #3 slot on my list. It’s that good.

#Ace Combat #ace combat 4

4 notes · View notes

less-than-hash · 6 years ago

Text

Endless Night Class

If you’re interested in studying game design, Atlus has provided a rare (possibly unique) opportunity in their Persona Endless Night Collection.

Be warned: I’m about to spend a lot of words advocating that you acquire, play extensively, and critically examine their three Persona dancing games. I’m in no way associated with (and have never been associated with) Atlus. Nor am I an evangelist for any of these three games individually (though I do enjoy them). Taken together, though, I think they prove both fascinating and illuminating, and it’s rare to find a series as odd as this collected like this.

I provide some possible alternatives for similar exercises at the bottom of the post.

For the uninitiated, Atlus released a beatmatch game for the Vita a few years back based on the fourth of their teenage dating-sim slash Jungian dungeon delve Persona games: Persona 4: Dancing All Night. (I’ll be calling this P4D.)

I’m personally a big fan and played the crap out of it for months. Which is not to say that it’s without some pretty significant flaws.

A few weeks ago, they released their follow-up(s), Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight (P3D) and Personal 5: Dancing in Starlight (P5D).

The fact that any of these games exist at all is pretty weird. They’re beatmatch games that serve as spin-offs (and in two out of three cases, sequels) to narrative focused hundred-hour RPGs, each themed around dancing, despite the fact that dancing is in no shape, form, or fashion important to the core games.

Stranger still, the two new releases are essentially the same game from both a systemic and narrative perspective. The characters are different, the music is different, the UI is different, but essentially everything else - the mechanics, the UX, the inciting narrative, the way story content is accessed, the loot - is exactly the same.

Essentially Atlus made two games worth of content for the exact same “engine” and released them at the same time. It’s a little as if Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas had been released on the same day (had New Vegas not made any modifications to Fallout 3′s gameplay systems).

But here’s the kicker: for $100, you can get the “Endless Night Collection,” which contains both of the new releases and a code for the digital version of the original Dancing All Night (for PS4, if you get the PS4 bundle).

In other words, for $100 you get:

A game from mid-2015 developed for the Vita.

A follow-up to that game based on a different property developed for simultaneous release on PS4 and Vita.

A second follow-up to that game based on yet a different property developed for simultaneous release on PS4 and Vita, to be released at the same time as the above.

In addition to which, one of the two new games is a spin-off of a 12 year-old PS2 game while the other is a spin-off of a game that released last year.

That’s a whole lot of design from a whole lot of sources over a pretty long time kind of piled up on top of itself.

To an extent, that’s not wildly different from, say, being able to purchase a Witcher 1, 2, and 3 bundle. But there are a few other things that lend these particular games to study:

There’s minimal change in the basic gameplay systems, allowing you to focus on what things the devs decided to alter between games.

The games can be approached almost entirely non-linearly. You will miss nothing by not playing them in the order they were released. You certainly need not play them in their numeric order. Even within the games, the narrative and songs are released in a fairly non-linear order. (This is less true in P4: Dancing All Night, but that’s part of the point of this exercise.)

The gameplay loop can be approached in chunks as short as five minutes.

Due to the confluence of the above, you can easily and comfortably jump back and forth between all three titles.

These games marry narrative-focused properties to a traditionally narrative-light genre.

All that said, here are a few things to keep in mind:

The games are not wildly accessible to those with difficulty hearing, seeing, or performing quick finger movements.

Having a working knowledge of Persona 3, Persona 4, and Persona 5 will dramatically deepen your experience of the dancing games. If you haven’t played them (which is reasonable - that’s a roughly 300 hour and $120 investment for all three, and Persona 3 has not aged well at all, especially from a systems design perspective), it’s worthwhile to at least familiarize yourself with their plots, themes, characters, art styles, and UI.

Possessing a knowledge of both rhythm games and music will allow you a deeper awareness of some of the gameplay changes that occur between the games.

SO, let’s say I’ve convinced you to acquire a copy of the games. What about them should you be studying as you play them?

What changes did the devs make between 2015′s P4D and the two 2018 games? What does each change accomplish? What need, challenge, or issue do you think the change was in response to?

Some examples:

P4D includes a visual novel-style story mode while P5D and P3D do not. Yet they still contain interactive narrative scenes. What do these two different presentations accomplish? Why do you think Atlus changed their tact in the newer games? For bonus points, compare against the narrative presentation in the Persona 4 Arena fighting games.

It’s not merely the mechanical presentation of the narrative content that changed between the games - the scope, focus, and tone of the two recent games is markedly different from P4D. P4D tells a single, linear narrative, while P3D and P5D seem much more interested in their casts’ varied interpersonal relationships. In the older game, the player encounters a small cast of entirely new characters. In what I’ve played of the newer games, there are no new characters at all. Consider why that is. I'm almost positive that the answers are neither “they’re lazy” or “it was cheaper” (though “the cost didn’t justify the reward” could very well be part of the rationale).

Progression in P4D is wildly different from that in P3D and P5D. Consider how this requires the player to approach the content. Think about why the devs may have decided to change progression in such a radical way.

Item progression, too, is handled entirely differently in P4D than in P3D/P5D. P4D included a currency system that’s entirely gone in the new games. Why do you think that is? Further, what types of items exist in the former that aren’t in the latter? Does the functionality of some of those item types exist elsewhere in the game? Why change that presentation? Some of these changes will feel like cuts, but I promise it would have been cheaper to leave some of these systems as they were. So if the reasoning wasn’t strictly financial, what was it?

There is a single addition to the core mechanics of the game between P4D and the new releases - the double beat. Why do you think it was added?

Compare the background videos during song gameplay in P4D to that in P3D and P5D. You’ll notice that the latter two are significantly less busy from a VFX perspective. (While I haven’t closely studied it, I suspect they’re also less complex in terms of camera cuts and camera angles.) Why do you think that is, especially given that A) games within series strongly tend towards bigger, brighter, and brasher over time; and B) the original Persona 5 possesses a much flashier visual style than Persona 4? Why are the dance sequences in P5D less flashy than those in P4D?

Similarly, passing any song in P4D got you a brief cutscene in which the dancing character summoned their persona. These are absent from the newer games. Consider why that might be. (In this case, the answer “It was cheaper” may have a lot of merit, but that’s probably not the sole reason. How do those little cutscenes at the end of each song impact the way the player interacts with the game? Especially in the common use case of the player wanting to retry the song to improve their score.)

This requires a little more familiarity with music and game design, but try to observe the ways in which the authoring of the beatmatch play changes between P4D and the newer games. The mechanics are exactly the same, but the way the devs present challenges within those mechanics are different. Try to identify how, then consider why. For bonus points, examine this through the lens of questions 4, 5, and 6 in the next section.

Much of the UI art in P4D is a major departure from that of the original Persona 4. On the other hand, P3D and P5D tend to hew much more closely to their sources for their UI art. Why do you think that is? Especially consider what’s accomplished by P3D’s emulation of a 12 year-old PS2 game. (Full disclosure: I hate it.) Strangely and interestingly, though, P3D straight up steals a bit of UI from P5D, which it takes from Persona 5. (Hint: it’s when the player is prompted to speak.) Why do you think this is? (This is a spot where the financials may have played a role. Creating the art asset for P3D to use the same UI in these moments certainly cost more than not having to create that asset. However, that cost may have been significantly cheaper and safer than changing that aspect of the UI’s functionality between the two concurrent games. Is that why it was done? I can’t say. It’s worth thinking about what the decision accomplishes from a non-financial perspective, too.)

A major change between P4D and P3D/P5D’s conversation UI is the discontinued use of character portraits during speech. Those portraits already exist for both Persona 3 and Persona 5, so why not use them?

Alright, that’s a bunch to chew on solely from the perspective of differences between the games over time.

But it’s also worthwhile to carefully consider the choices that remain consistent across the titles. These are the things the devs felt strongly enough about to hold onto when they could have changed or jettisoned them.

The controls in all three games are exactly the same (though there’s a little fuzziness between platforms where certain inputs don’t map 1 to 1 between them). What do you think the developers consider so successful about these controls that they didn’t adjust them at all in the three years between the release of P4D and the latter titles?

Similarly, consider the control inputs chosen. Identify why d-pad right and Square aren’t used during dance play. Then consider how else the developers could have tried to address that issue. Why do you think they landed on the solution that they did?

Up at the top of this post, I mentioned that despite their overt focus on the idea and act of dancing (and the narrative’s examination of dancing from perspectives social, physical, and cultural), these are not dancing games. So why do you think these games are about dancing at all? The developers could absolutely had the beatmatch play represent something like the characters calling on their personas to battle shadows - or carrying out heists in the case of P5D. Or playing music in a band. So why the focus on dance? How does that interact with the base Persona games? Consider the role that “practice” and “training” play in both the dancing games and the RPGs. How is it reflected in the narrative of the games? How is it reflected in the way the player interacts with the game?

Clearly the player isn’t actually dancing - so what experience do you think are the devs hoping to inspire in the player as they perform each song? How do you think they wanted you to feel while you’re playing?

The audio chosen for the beat match is incredibly specific. Listen to the sound the game makes when you successfully hit a single beat. To the sound the game makes when you hit a linked beat. A sustained beat. Each of these are different, and each is immediately recognizable. Unless I missed something, none of these sounds change between the original P4D and the recent releases. (Though the new games let the player edit the sounds that play for each beat type.) Why do you think the audio team chose those sounds? How do those specific sounds contribute to the player’s experience of the game? Looking back to question 4, how do these sounds make the player feel when their actions evoke them?

Once you’ve got an answer for questions 4 and 5, consider how successful you think the devs were in evoking that experience. Which aspects of the game undermine that experience? Which support it? Are there aspects that undermine it present in P4D that no longer exist in the recent releases?

Play the game on the three basic difficulties. Are your answers to question 6 different on the different levels of difficulty?

Go play (or watch a video of) Guitar Hero, Rock Band, or one of their sequels. What sounds do those games make when the player successfully hits a beat? More interestingly, what’s the audio response to missing a beat in Guitar Hero or Rock Band? Compare that to the audio response for missing a beat in the Persona dancing games. Why do you think those teams chose those dramatically different approaches?

Carefully consider the gameplay goals and how they’re presented to the player. The player is scored numerically, but they also reside on a continuum of “approval” (presented by dancing green alien invader-looking shadows in P4D and by bar meters in the newer releases). The latter of these is given tremendous and repeated audio feedback in the form of barks from the player’s companions. Additionally, the game displays how many successful beats the player has had since they last missed one. (And look at how the game defines this - it isn’t only a Missed beat that breaks a combo, but one rated Good.) Finally, the game assigns a text rating at the end of a performance: Not Cleared Stage Cleared Brilliant King Crazy Consider how all of these forms of feedback relate to one another. Why do all of these exist? Do they need to? What problems do you think they were implemented to solve?

Really think about the numerical score. How do you think it’s calculated? (Hint: the player increases that score over the course of their playthrough - it’s not tabulated at the end based on the report card of information presented about their performance.) Note that I don’t mean the specifics of exactly how many points each beat is worth, because I have no idea what those specifics are. (I could probably Google it, but part of the point of this is to consider what the player’s experiencing is.) What purpose does it serve?

For that matter, look at the elite King Crazy rating. Consider how it’s earned (by hitting every beat in a song, including scratches, with either Perfect or Great precision). Why do you think that’s the goal the developers set for the player? And why call it “King Crazy?” (I don’t think the answer to that question is localization-related or preciousness with the original language. The two recent games are called Persona 3: Dancing Moon Night and Persona 5: Dancing Star Night in Japan. Though I suppose if preciousness preserved the term in P4D, a desire to retain the same scale might result in the persistence of the term.)

I mentioned near the top of this post that these games aren’t wildly accessible. Consider specifically what aspects of the game would make it difficult for different kinds of people to enjoy playing it. If you were the developer, how might you try to address some of these issues?

During narrative segments, P3D and P5D (and to a lesser extent P4D, given its visual novel style) make a marked departure from the RPGs they’re based on in terms of perspective. Neither Persona 3 nor Persona 5 are first-person games, and the dancing segments involving the protagonist in P3D and P5D are similarly third person. Consider the first person perspective of the narrative in P3D and P5D. What does it accomplish? Why do you think the developers chose it?

Whew, that’s a lot. You doing okay?

In the famous words of Douglas Adams’s towel, DON’T WORRY. You don’t need to know the answers to all of those questions. I certainly don’t.

I’ve got pretty strong suspicions about some of them, interpretations or ideas about most of them, and educated guesses about the rest. For some of these questions, the only people who know the answers for sure are those who were in the room when the decision was made. And hell, maybe they’ve forgotten!

The point is that if you’re going to be successful in design, you should be willing to dig deep into what a game’s doing when you experience it. Interrogate the game. Try to suss out the developers’ intentions. Resist the urge to pass judgment on them - to say that their choices are right or wrong, good or bad - but feel free to consider how you might have tried a different approach.

And then consider what obstacles those different approaches might hit.

Personally (get it?), I think that the Endless Night Collection provides a really rare, interesting opportunity to dig into these kinds of questions across multiple related games. If you don’t want to or can’t look at these particular titles, try to find similar opportunities. Search for games that might provide rewarding insights through archaeological examination. Some possibilities:

You a WoW player? Find a vanilla server and take a long, focused look at the way the game’s changed since launch.

The base Mass Effect trilogy was developed over a relatively short period of time (the console life cycle of the 360), but each game plays significantly differently from the one before. Despite the fact that you’re playing the same character (kind of) in each, the stats that represent that character, the way that character moves, and the UI through which you inhabit the character all change dramatically between each title. (My Shepherd in ME1 was spec’d as a healer. Remember when an ME character could be a healer?)

If you’re into Obsidian’s games, play through Baldur’s Gate 2, Pillars of Eternity, and Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire and ask questions like those above of these games. The original PoE essentially sold itself as a modern BG, so in what ways did it actually emulate those old games, and in what ways did the devs decide a different direction was better? What further did they then change for the sequel to their own game?

Find those changes, those differences large and small, give consideration to what the experience accomplishes (or fails to) on either side of the change, and imagine what the devs were trying to accomplish with their adjustments.

Anyway, I should probably sleep at some point, or so Morgana would tell me.

Good luck! <#

#persona 3 #persona 4 #persona 5 #rhythm game #gamedev #gamedesign #atlus

20 notes · View notes

tumblunni · 6 years ago

Text

Make me play awful games!~

A cool idea to both provide you some laughs and help me pay off my broadband debt! If tumblr bloggers can get paid to eat a crayon then maybe i can sell my pain at playing awful video games?

Request me the worst, just goddamn trashiest games you can even imagine!

The consoles i'm able to record on are pc, ps4, 3ds, ds, gba, ps1, ps2 and any android game that can run on a european phone. (I'm still so mad that Dragalia Lost is america only!!)

And yes i will do ALL kinds of awful games! Low funds means i dont have any objection to Suffering Online, yknow? But i mean even if its torturously bad itd be less awful than it usually would, cos i'd be able to laugh about it with my friends!

Games i will otherwise NEVER play on my channel, but will play for money: horror games (cos im a huge wimp), anything with n/s/f/w content (cos i'm asexual AF lol), really extreme gore or something, really really fuckin awful bigoted depressing trash i.e racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, lo/lic/on, abusive relationships/consent issues/homophobia/all the common bad stuff in dating sims that i'm always vigilant for because this genre has such a weirdly high proportion of trash. ALSO: platformers and shooter games. Not because they morally disgust me but because i have shaky hands and poor spatial awareness while i have my glasses on, so i fail sooooo bad, lol! It could be fun to watch!

Only rule is that you need to give me a vague idea of what kind of bad is gonna be in the game, so i can at least mentally prepare myself. Yknow, not film the SUPER bad ones on a day when i'm already depressed? It doesnt have to be a big explanation cos avoiding spoilers would make my reactions more funny lol. But just like i dunno "it has some abusive relationships somewhere" or whatever.

Also, i think maybe prices depend on the Suffering? Like if you request a game that's just Bad aka glitchy or awfully written, then i might do that for free cos it'd be fun, yknow? But stuff with heavy sex/gore or really dark personally offending content would be a "no i'm sorry i'm not doing that without getting paid".

I dunno how much people usually charge for this sort of thing but i was pretty much thinking "throw me £1 and i will be your dancing monkey, i am just that desperate". And a fiver to make me suffer the worst of the worst, lol! Tho of course thats for free to play games or stuff i can emulate, itd kinda ruin the whole purpose if i was losing my own money in the process. Tho i think after my financial dilemma is over i might keep doing this as a "if you can pay at least half the cost of me buying the game, i will play it for you" thing.

Also everybody who's previously donated to help me with my bills, you get free requests for life! Even the maximum suffering!! After all, i'm only making this post cos i felt so bad that people were kind enough to give me money for nothing. I cant think of anything else i can give you guys that would really earn it, yknow?

Oh and just to add that i do already have one or two ideas i could do for this. There's a legendarily awfully disgusting l/olico/n game i got once in a steam sale due to the goddamn game description NOT SAYING ANYTHING ABOUT HAVING HORRIBLE CHILD NUDITY IN IT! I got fuckin jumpscared by lil girl panties!! And the worst part is that the game actually had really good gameplay?? I was enjoying it for like an hour before The Thing Happened, and my eternal rage will never cease because i hate thinking that a good budget went into this grossness. I wish i could steal all of its ideas and make them wholesome!! Srsly i really like "raising a daughter sim" type games and theyre so rare that i was excited to find one that looked decent and then ABORT ABORT ITS ABOUT RAISING A CHILD SEX SLAVE! So yeah i'd love an excuse to basically rant for three hours about how much this thing traumatized me and how awful the developers are. Also i originally noped out at just the first sign of horrible perviness so you guys can laugh at me dying at the no doubt even worse stuff that is probably there!

Also i'm sure this goes without saying but i'll be covering all the horrible sex stuff with censor bars. I don't wanna get kicked off youtube and i dont want you guys to feel the full awfulness of that game, just to enjoy my reactions to that awfulness. Also DUH i dont want any actual pedos to get off on it and follow my channel thinking they'd see more, that'd completely destroy my will to live...

I probably wont censor out other kinds of bad stuff tho? Maybe gore? Does youtube have a rule against gore? I just wanna play it safe. I wanna give you guys the fun of seeing me Die Inside instead of making you also Die.

#bunni plays games #also if anyone gave me money to punch myself in the face or lick a slug i would also do that #honestly i have no shame #i cant be mad at crayon eater cos ive been that desperate before lol

9 notes · View notes

nicholerestrada · 6 years ago

Text

PlayStation Classic games list, release date and pre-order tips

Nintendo has the NES Classic Mini and SNES Classic Mini, and Sony’s not one for being left out in the cold. This December, it’s launching the PlayStation Classic, a miniaturised version of the original Sony PlayStation released in 1994 – the one that started it all for the PlayStation brand.

Preloaded with 20 games and small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, here’s everything you need to know about the PlayStation Classic.

Cut to the chase

What is it? Sony’s own retro system, packing 20 original PlayStation games

When can I play it? December 3 2018 (the 24th anniversary of the original PS1’s release)

What will it include? A miniaturised console with 20 games, two original-style PlayStation 1 controllers, HDMI cable, microUSB-to-USB cable, immense nostalgia

PlayStation Classic price and release date

The PlayStation Classic goes on sale December 3rd, though it’s unclear how many regions it will be available in on that date. It’ll cost $99.99 in the US, £89.99 in the UK and $149.99 in Australia. Read on for how to secure a PlayStation Classic at launch as well as our tips for pre-ordering the throwback console.

PlayStation Classic specs and features

Nearly half the size of the original PlayStation, the PlayStation Classic is a dead-ringer for Sony’s first games console, which first launched back in late 1994.

But whereas the original PlayStation ran on CDs, the PlayStation Classic’s games will run entirely on internal memory. It may look like there’s a CD tray there, but that’s just for show (and it’s about 50% too small anyway).

Likewise, where game saves were once stored on separate Memory Cards that plugged into the front of the PlayStation, the Classic will place all saves on virtual Memory Cards, emulated by the hardware itself.

What aren’t virtual or miniaturised however are the controllers. Other than the USB connections they now use, they’re identically sized to the original PlayStation pads, from the pre-analogue stick era. You’ll get two in the box, letting you enjoy multiplayer titles straight away.

Some other small changes to the hardware include power and AV ports. Audio and video is now carried by the standard HDMI connection, and power over a microUSB port. It’s worth noting that while an HDMI and microUSB-to-USB cable are in the box, it doesn’t include an AC adapter. You’re going to have to pick up your own that accepts 5 V, 1.0 A Type A USB (a wall plug included with your smartphone should be fine), or find enough power from a USB port on the side of your TV.

There are still a few details we don’t know, though. How much memory is onboard, and what processor is being used? How are the games being emulated, and will they be formatted or upscaled in any way to make the most of modern TV resolutions? And what will the interface be for accessing the library of pre-installed games, and will there be a way to add additional titles to the machine at a later date? We’ll update this piece once we have answers to these questions.

PlayStation Classic games list

The PlayStation Classic will come with 20 games pre-installed, all highly-regarded greats from the height of the PS1’s glory. To keep anticipation mounting, Sony has only revealed five games so far: Tekken 3, Ridge Racer Type 4, Wild Arms, Jumping Flash and the mighty Final Fantasy VII. Here’s a little bit more about each game.

Final Fantasy VII

Considered by many to be one of the greatest JRPGs of all time, it’s certainly the game that popularised the epic, narrative-led adventure series in the west. Set in a dystopian fantasy future, you’ll lead a team of freedom fighters as they take on a dangerous world-sapping corporation, whose experiments put the entire planet in danger. It’s one of the best stories in gaming history, and a must-play.

Tekken 3

The thinking person’s fighting game, Tekken 3 brought a near-perfect recreation of the arcade beat-em-up to home consoles. Players focus on combos and smart defenses rather than histrionic projectiles. Not that the game wasn’t without its flashes of silliness however – you could play a giant panda if you wanted to lay the smackdown that way.

Ridge Racer Type 4

Namco’s Ridge Racer series built its name on its accessible high speed racing, with its corner drifting feature stolen by essentially every arcade-style racing game since. It perfected the art in Ridge Racer Type 4, which added a meaningful progression system and career circuit to the on-the-tarmac action. It’s a height the series has never quite managed to hit again.

Wild Arms

One of the quirkier JRPGs out there (and that’s saying something), Wild Arms takes turn-based combat and a save-the-world story and throws it all into a Wild West-themed settings. Red Dead Redemption 2 this is not, however, with the trappings of Japanese role players firmly at its roots. Definitely worth a look once you’re done with Final Fantasy.

Jumping Flash

Now, this is the very definition of a cult classic. A first-person platforming game that had you jumping high, high, high up above a level as some sort of robotic rabbit thing, it’s the sort of game that’d win high indie acclaim these days, but has been all but forgotten now. A well-deserved resurrection is due, which the PlayStation Classic will deliver.

But that’s just 5 games – what else could we hope to see on the PlayStation Classic? Here are 15 games that we think would make the PlayStation Classic a must-buy.

Metal Gear Solid: a classic that needs no introduction, it invented the stealth genre, and changed the face of gaming forever. It’ll be a crime if this isn’t included.

Tenchu Stealth Assassins: Metal Gear Solid, but with ninjas. ‘Nuff said.

Rayman: PlayStation’s side-scrolling answer to Mario. Beautifully animated for its time, only to be overshadowed by the 3D extravaganza of Mario 64 soon afterwards.

Crash Bandicoot: fast-paced, twitch-heavy mascot platforming.

Gran Turismo: a driving game for petrol heads, it was one of the first racers to take the fetishistic love of cars and turn it into a massive career.

Tomb Raider 2: a massive, mysterious adventure that mixed gun fights, puzzles and platforming in a wonderful Indiana Jone style. Lara Croft was an icon of the era, and needs to be represented, with the second game arguably her finest 32-bit outing.

Demolition Derby: just great fun this one – it’s not smart, but smashing cars together is simply fun.

Die Hard Trilogy: three games in one – third person shooter, first person shooter and racing game, all styled around the yippe-kay-yay action films.

Resident Evil: the birth of survival horror – bettered by its sequel, but with that getting a full 4K remake, going back to the very roots would be more appropriate here.

Dino Crisis 2: Resident Evil, but with dinosaurs. ‘Nuff said.

Theme Hospital: great, humorous management sim where you build hospitals and wards to save patients from ridiculous, made up diseases.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night: one of the best games ever made, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night mixes tough-as-nails 2D platforming and exploration with some light RPG mechanics. Great level design and excellent combat. A genuine classic.

Silent Hill: if Resident Evil got its scares through B-movie tactics, the similar Silent Hill did so by tapping a David Lynch-esque psychological vein. Even today, it’s still really, really scary.

Vagrant Story: a tactical RPG that was visually ahead of its time. A challenging adventure with a great story, it’s well worth sticking with.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2: So. Much. Fun. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 had a killer soundtrack and addictive combo based point-scoring skating action that was unlike anything around at the time. It’d be sorely missed if left off the Classic.

PlayStation Classic pre-order deals:

The cheapest prices currently available

If you’re interested in picking up one of these consoles at launch, seriously consider setting up a pre-order deal. The original PlayStation sold more than 100 million units, only beaten to the best-selling spot by its successor the PS2. There will be many people looking to get on the nostalgia train, and the pricing makes this a perfect Christmas gift.

Demand will almost certainly be high, and if the response to the Nintendo retro consoles was anything to go by, could well outstrip supply. Don’t expect to see these on sale this side of Christmas, so if you’ve got your heart set on it, pick-up a pre-order from one of the retailers listed above to avoid disappointment.

Best PS4 games: see how far we’ve come with our top current PlayStation picks

Source link

Source: https://hashtaghighways.com/2018/10/12/playstation-classic-games-list-release-date-and-pre-order-tips/

from Garko Media https://garkomedia1.wordpress.com/2018/10/12/playstation-classic-games-list-release-date-and-pre-order-tips/

0 notes

michaeljtraylor · 6 years ago