I've finally made my way to Steelport, but sadly I'm more underwhelmed than I thought I would be. The city is beautiful, the atmosphere is alive, but the the city of Steelport just doesn't have as much character and diversity as Stilwater, either version. Stilwater drew me in and made me want to visit, drive around and just generally spend time within it's city limits, as where Steelport feels too much like the places I've already been to and avoid in my real life.
Saints Row the Third doesn't stray too far away from the feel of the previous two installments, but it does give the player an almost completely new experience, overall. My personal feelings are a bit of a mixed bag, in terms of how I feel playing the three games I've played so far. My absolute favorite change, however, is how the ranking system now feelings more like an RPG leveling system and you're not left out of missions simply because you don't have enough respect, forcing you to do some of the side missions to advance through the main story.
But then comes a short list of things that I didn't quite like about Saints Row the Third, such as, but not limited to: latency between when I push the button and the car horn actually sounds, often changing frame rate, the engine sounds for the Hammerhead and a few other vehicles are almost non-existent, most of my favorite cars were removed and replaces by cars I couldn't care less about (sick to death of seeing the fucking Sovereign EVERYWHERE), car upgrades aren't as good or interesting as they were in the previous two games, Angel's Gym garage is completely broken and worthless (Did anyone test this!?) and finally I do not like being asked to access crib the whole time I'm inside the crib!
Saints Row the Third also offers a few things that felt unfinished, but would have been great, had they taken the time to fully flesh them out. When you set down a way point on the GPS, there will sometimes be a working turn signal on the vehicle you're driving. The sad part is that it never seems to work for too long, maybe once or twice during the whole trip. Another half-assed idea was the drift button, which is good, and sometimes quite useful, but I'm more familiar with a handbrake that helps me come to a complete stop, not one that allows me to defy the laws of physics.
The activities are very well managed in Saints Row the Third, the story is very well done and I liked how a lot of activities were placed into story missions to get you acclimated on how to work them all. I found the activities to be less challenging, yet more fun; even if I failed, I felt like I had learned what I did wrong so I could correct it the next time around. Also, there are quite a few less activities to be done, although more variety, which is absolutely a great part of this game.
Something I'm indifferent to was the system of unlocking and then paying for upgrades. I didn't find this to be a hassle nor a great addition to the game, I just felt it is what it is and it worked, simple as that. Money is fairly easy to come by, once you start to acquire parts of the city and earning an income, so once you've gained enough respect and level up, it's fairly easy to purchase the upgrades you've unlocked, which at the end of the game become very useful.
Compared to the first two, Saints Row the Third felt bland and unfinished. Instead of finding myself losing track of hours at a time, I found myself shutting down my Xbox and occupying my time with something else as it just didn't draw me in as much as the first two did. I don't fully know what the disconnect was, but I have a feeling it's due, in large part, to the lack of interesting vehicles and the sub-par car modification system. But even through all the ups and even more downs I've felt with Saints Row the Third, I enjoyed it, just not nearly as much as I did the first two, which I feel I've made the point abundantly obvious.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Saturday, May 17, 2014
My History with the GTA series. Part 1: The Playstation Years
When Grand Theft Auto hit the Playstation, I was about 14. At that time I had a Playstation, but I didn't have enough money, or the ability, to purchase many games for the console. At that age the rumors of such a game were hanging heavily in the air around school, and just in general.
I believe my first introduction to the game was at a friend's house, where I would often spend weekends at a time going on benders of soda fueled video game bingeing. I remember walking through the door and hearing "Hey, check THIS out!". When I looked at the screen I remember my first reactions were mixed as to how lame the 2D graphics were, as I was more familiar with the full-on 3D things the Playstation seemed to be geared more toward doing, at the time. But after sitting down and watching someone play the game for about 30 minutes I realized this game wasn't your average video game; this video game was going to push a lot of buttons and become a classic.
It wasn't until the Playstation was actually dying out, and I was 18, that I acquired my own copy of Grand Theft Auto and Grand Theft Auto 2. Playstation games were becoming so cheap that I decided it was finally time for me to buy whatever games I had always wanted but never purchased. Sure, they're the Greatest Hits versions, but they're the exact same thing! I never really cared much about the whole Greatest Hits versus original black label anyway, like I said, the games are the exact same.
Countless hours, days, and possibly weeks were spent driving around and testing out all the different cars in all the different cities, selling them for more money, obtaining more weapons, using cheat codes to obtain the tank and just generally causing as much mayhem as I possibly could. To this day I've never actually taken the time to play through all of the missions, but I have played through quite a few missions. The strange thing being that when I finally decided to play GTA 2, I purposely tried to play it as a game, instead of playing it as a free-for-all mayhem simulator.
It wasn't until even later that I bought a collector's edition of Grand Theft Auto, allowing me to finally play the London, 1969 expansion pack. I hate to say that by this time I had moved into the 3D games and had become less and less impressed with the original games, but it's true. I haven't played any of the original 2D GTA games in a handful of years, simply because I don't find them as appealing as I once did. The 3D worlds offer far more variety on how to create mayhem, rendering the original games to being merely shelf decorations.
Regardless of my lack of desire to play them today, they still hold a treasured place within my past. I still recall many nights whizzing pass as I sat in bed playing GTA. Hours of my life just draining away as I tossed molotovs in GTA 2. Hours, days and weeks I'll never get back, but I don't want back, simply because GTA made them so much fun to waste.
I believe my first introduction to the game was at a friend's house, where I would often spend weekends at a time going on benders of soda fueled video game bingeing. I remember walking through the door and hearing "Hey, check THIS out!". When I looked at the screen I remember my first reactions were mixed as to how lame the 2D graphics were, as I was more familiar with the full-on 3D things the Playstation seemed to be geared more toward doing, at the time. But after sitting down and watching someone play the game for about 30 minutes I realized this game wasn't your average video game; this video game was going to push a lot of buttons and become a classic.
It wasn't until the Playstation was actually dying out, and I was 18, that I acquired my own copy of Grand Theft Auto and Grand Theft Auto 2. Playstation games were becoming so cheap that I decided it was finally time for me to buy whatever games I had always wanted but never purchased. Sure, they're the Greatest Hits versions, but they're the exact same thing! I never really cared much about the whole Greatest Hits versus original black label anyway, like I said, the games are the exact same.
Countless hours, days, and possibly weeks were spent driving around and testing out all the different cars in all the different cities, selling them for more money, obtaining more weapons, using cheat codes to obtain the tank and just generally causing as much mayhem as I possibly could. To this day I've never actually taken the time to play through all of the missions, but I have played through quite a few missions. The strange thing being that when I finally decided to play GTA 2, I purposely tried to play it as a game, instead of playing it as a free-for-all mayhem simulator.
It wasn't until even later that I bought a collector's edition of Grand Theft Auto, allowing me to finally play the London, 1969 expansion pack. I hate to say that by this time I had moved into the 3D games and had become less and less impressed with the original games, but it's true. I haven't played any of the original 2D GTA games in a handful of years, simply because I don't find them as appealing as I once did. The 3D worlds offer far more variety on how to create mayhem, rendering the original games to being merely shelf decorations.
Regardless of my lack of desire to play them today, they still hold a treasured place within my past. I still recall many nights whizzing pass as I sat in bed playing GTA. Hours of my life just draining away as I tossed molotovs in GTA 2. Hours, days and weeks I'll never get back, but I don't want back, simply because GTA made them so much fun to waste.
Monday, April 7, 2014
Crackdown
An article or two ago I mentioned that I had a case for Crackdown that was complete, except for the actual game disc. Well after a quick ebay search I tracked down a disc only auction for $3, which was as cheap as I could find a disc only copy. After the game arrived I gave it a good play though, to make sure everything worked, and after I was done I put it in its rightful case.
I'm sure it's well documented on this blog that I love open world games to explore and roam around freely, so Crackdown fits well into that niche. But Crackdown is a bit different in that the city seems to be geared more toward the special jump ability and traveling over rooftops, instead of hopping into a car and just driving from A to B. Which is slightly odd, in Crackdown I strongly loathe driving, as I've always found my ability to bound up and over buildings the more entertaining way to go.
As an initial test for the game I deleted the Demo that had been sitting on my Xbox hard drive for years and started a new game save. As I started playing I was quickly quite frustrated by the game's difficulty; nothing I did seemed to make any progress, and I simply couldn't do anything right. After a few days of frustration I was about to give up, but as I was signing in (this games jargon for loading the save file) I noticed in my haste to get through the initial setup and begin the game, I had set the difficulty on the highest level (Psychotic). After I had rectified this problem I found the game a little bit too easy, but still very much enjoyable.
Crackdown was a fun game, but it only gave me about 4 or 5 days of gameplay. Although its short, and I don't see much replay value in it, the game is still worth a play through. I'm glad I held on to the case when I found it, and I'm glad I found a disc only copy fairly cheap. Now that I've beaten the game it will end up in the stack with the rest of my Xbox 360 games, but this game was well worth the time and money invested, which sadly wasn't much in either direction.
Thursday, April 3, 2014
Gamecube Action Replay
Recently I've been trying to track down a Game Genie for both the Sega Genesis and Game Gear on ebay, but I've been outbid on every one so far. While on the hunt I saw an item pop up with an astonishing amount of bids that I never knew was supposedly this valuable. It was an Action Replay for the Nintendo Gamecube and it was at $50 with a few days still to go, which made me recall the time I picked mine up.
It was about a year ago, and I was checking the book bags and backpacks at a local Goodwill when I saw a unique Gamecube bag I hadn't seen before. The item had no price tag, but all the other bags around it said $3.99, so I just assumed this would be the same price. When I opened the case, to make sure the inside wasn't ripped up, I saw an Action Replay disc and memory card sitting in one of the pockets. This little addition pushed any doubt of whether this was worth $4 out of mind and straight into buy mode.
After searching the store for anything else, and coming up empty, I headed for the register. The cashier was new and after I told her there was no price tag on the item, I lent a helping hand by telling her the bags around it were all $3.99. She repudiated my assistance and headed over to the nearest manager. This made me nervous, as I know how money hungry and greedy Goodwill is, they would probably assume I was trying to steal the Action Replay, or charge me an extra $4 for it!
With the Gamecube bag in hand the cashier walked over to the nearest manager, who just so happened to be speaking with another employee and not giving a single fuck about doing her job, which turned out great for me! The manager opened the bag and I envisioned all my dreams of owning an Action Replay slipping away fast, but instead she quickly handed it back to the cashier and mumbled $3.99.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!!!
I quickly pulled out my card and gleefully paid my $4 plus tax and walked out of the store, before they could attempt to rectify their mistake. I had never owned an Action Replay for the Gamecube, but once I got it home and used it to unlock a slew of things in Animal Crossing, I was glad I had one now. Although not completely useful to me, I still felt quite lucky to now have it in my armory.
Until recently I had never even given much thought to my Action Replay, I haven't used it much, although it does have a system to allow me to play imports if I so choose. But I just assumed it was maybe a $15-20 value that I picked up for $4, along with a pretty cool Gamecube bag. It turns out, I was off by quite a long ways, more so than I could ever imagine.
Knowing ebay the way I do, I just assumed the $50 bid was someone being a jerk and boosting the bid to the point they were going to win it, or never intended to pay that much for the auction. I took it upon myself to do a little research into what these were currently going for, and what they were actually selling for. Thank you ebay for finally allowing people to see what items actually SOLD for!
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It was about a year ago, and I was checking the book bags and backpacks at a local Goodwill when I saw a unique Gamecube bag I hadn't seen before. The item had no price tag, but all the other bags around it said $3.99, so I just assumed this would be the same price. When I opened the case, to make sure the inside wasn't ripped up, I saw an Action Replay disc and memory card sitting in one of the pockets. This little addition pushed any doubt of whether this was worth $4 out of mind and straight into buy mode.
After searching the store for anything else, and coming up empty, I headed for the register. The cashier was new and after I told her there was no price tag on the item, I lent a helping hand by telling her the bags around it were all $3.99. She repudiated my assistance and headed over to the nearest manager. This made me nervous, as I know how money hungry and greedy Goodwill is, they would probably assume I was trying to steal the Action Replay, or charge me an extra $4 for it!
With the Gamecube bag in hand the cashier walked over to the nearest manager, who just so happened to be speaking with another employee and not giving a single fuck about doing her job, which turned out great for me! The manager opened the bag and I envisioned all my dreams of owning an Action Replay slipping away fast, but instead she quickly handed it back to the cashier and mumbled $3.99.
GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL!!!
I quickly pulled out my card and gleefully paid my $4 plus tax and walked out of the store, before they could attempt to rectify their mistake. I had never owned an Action Replay for the Gamecube, but once I got it home and used it to unlock a slew of things in Animal Crossing, I was glad I had one now. Although not completely useful to me, I still felt quite lucky to now have it in my armory.
Until recently I had never even given much thought to my Action Replay, I haven't used it much, although it does have a system to allow me to play imports if I so choose. But I just assumed it was maybe a $15-20 value that I picked up for $4, along with a pretty cool Gamecube bag. It turns out, I was off by quite a long ways, more so than I could ever imagine.
Knowing ebay the way I do, I just assumed the $50 bid was someone being a jerk and boosting the bid to the point they were going to win it, or never intended to pay that much for the auction. I took it upon myself to do a little research into what these were currently going for, and what they were actually selling for. Thank you ebay for finally allowing people to see what items actually SOLD for!
The results were still astonishing, astounding and even downright exciting, at least to me. Above are two auctions, obviously the one with a few more things sold for a little bit more, but this is fairly common place for these units. I've seen discs only sell for $60, I couldn't believe it! Not a bad investment, and all I had to do was check the book bags section of a local Goodwill.
Monday, March 31, 2014
Mercenaries 2: World in Flames
Nearly 2 years ago I wrote about buying games for more than one console, and how I prefer not to do it unless I have no other choice, or I'm getting a good deal on the game. One of the games that I mentioned was Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, which I originally bought for the Xbox 360, and how after my 360 died I purchased the PS2 version, as I have never owned a PS3. Well the PS2 version never got much play time because it is so wildly different from the Xbox 360 version, in terms of game play and story details, that I found it difficult to jump from one to the other.
Now I can understand graphical differences, with the leap from PS2 to Xbox 360, that is to be expected. But the game play and story varies to to an alarming degree, at least for me, too much so to be a game with the same name. Another example I gave was Bully for PS2 and the Scholarship Edition for the 360, while upgrading the graphics and adding additional content, the game was still based on the same core, and was much easier to pick up and continue playing as if it were the original version.
The overall goal is the same; to be a mercenary in war-torn Venezuela, and to complete contracts to earn as much money as possible, destroy as many things as possible and to generally have a good time while doing these things. But with the transition from Xbox 360 down to the PS2, the map has gotten significantly smaller, with less area to explore and even fewer things to destroy. Also the hardware limitations cause many things to popup right in front of you, causing you to take more collateral damage than is really even necessary.
One of the main things in the game are weapons, which seem to disappear if you swap them out for something on the ground, where as in the 360 version they stick around for a while allowing me to use an RPG and swap back to the SMG I just swapped it for 1 minute ago. Also weapons crates seemed to be stashed everywhere in the 360 version, if you find a crate in the PS2 version its a most often a solid object, offering no ammo, grenades, health packets, nothing!
Don't get me wrong, I loved the original Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, which the PS2 version of World in Flames feels like a heavily modified version of, but even the original seems to have a bigger map, more things to destroy and it just all around better feeling than the newer one. Another game with the same feel was Just Cause, which is far more massive than the PS2 version of World in Flames, but the driving and walking mechanics have a very familiar vibe. It just feels more like Just Cause than it does Mercenaries.
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Now I can understand graphical differences, with the leap from PS2 to Xbox 360, that is to be expected. But the game play and story varies to to an alarming degree, at least for me, too much so to be a game with the same name. Another example I gave was Bully for PS2 and the Scholarship Edition for the 360, while upgrading the graphics and adding additional content, the game was still based on the same core, and was much easier to pick up and continue playing as if it were the original version.
The overall goal is the same; to be a mercenary in war-torn Venezuela, and to complete contracts to earn as much money as possible, destroy as many things as possible and to generally have a good time while doing these things. But with the transition from Xbox 360 down to the PS2, the map has gotten significantly smaller, with less area to explore and even fewer things to destroy. Also the hardware limitations cause many things to popup right in front of you, causing you to take more collateral damage than is really even necessary.
One of the main things in the game are weapons, which seem to disappear if you swap them out for something on the ground, where as in the 360 version they stick around for a while allowing me to use an RPG and swap back to the SMG I just swapped it for 1 minute ago. Also weapons crates seemed to be stashed everywhere in the 360 version, if you find a crate in the PS2 version its a most often a solid object, offering no ammo, grenades, health packets, nothing!
Don't get me wrong, I loved the original Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction, which the PS2 version of World in Flames feels like a heavily modified version of, but even the original seems to have a bigger map, more things to destroy and it just all around better feeling than the newer one. Another game with the same feel was Just Cause, which is far more massive than the PS2 version of World in Flames, but the driving and walking mechanics have a very familiar vibe. It just feels more like Just Cause than it does Mercenaries.
Strange, but useful, finds.
One of the things I found most often at the outlet store were empty video game cases. How these cases were emptied is anyone's guess; whether they had been picked through by the crew who dumped them into the bins, the resellers ignorantly picking out the games and leaving the cases behind, or perhaps they were just empty cases when they turned up at Goodwill. Seeing what I've seen, I can assure you all three of those are very viable options.
Although PS2 cases were most prevalent, on occasion there was anything from Gamecube to Xbox 360. Original Playstation cases would pop up from time to time, but more often than not they actually contained the game, which was better than being empty. On rare occasions I would find game boxes, such as my Home Alone for the SNES or the two absolutely complete, other than the game, N64 boxes for Blast Corps and Nascar 2000.
My initial idea was to snag them and use them for video games that had generic cases, Shamestop stickers on them that just wouldn't come off, or damaged or otherwise boogered up cases. After I had swapped out all my cases, to my satisfaction, I kept collecting them for potential future swaps I may need to make. But then I came across a case that changed my idea of why I should pick them up and keep them.
Up to this point I was running across a lot of NCAA, Madden and other boring titles, so I never felt bad evicting sports titles from their cases to give the games I owned a better place to live. But just as I had done with the video game boxes, I found a video game case that was complete, and a game that I wanted to own. So instead of looking at this case as swap fodder, this was the first case I kept complete so that I could track down a copy of the game and have it CIB.
Crackdown was one of the first Xbox 360 games I had played, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I saw it as sort of an Xbox 360 Grand Theft Auto, before I had the chance to play GTA 4. So when I saw this case I quickly snatched it up, popped it open and was disappointed that it was empty. Oh well, at least I have the case! And I'll just have to buy myself a disc only copy from ebay, which is exactly what I think I'll do!
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Video Games I need more of: Bully!
After I acquired my first PS2 I did the standard "What games can I use this thing for?" research and came up with a nice little treasure trove of games that I wanted to purchase. Among them were obviously exclusives for the Sony consoles such as Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories, as well as another Rockstar hit, Bully. The concept of Bully was a bit weird for me, at first, but after I purchased the game and gave it a bit of a play through it really sprouted out and became a game that my mind wished there was more of.
In the game Bully you play as Jimmy Hopkins, a 15 year old with a bad attitude, which is a slight departure from the main protagonists Rockstar is putting into their GTA series. Jimmy is sent to Bullworth Academy, a boarding school, to help him adjust said attitude. While at Bullworth Jimmy makes friends and enemies along his (mis)adventures through both the school yard and the adjacent town.
Bully plays a bit like a GTA game, but has its own environmental feel and works really well, although I always felt the overall area was just too small, as I was more familiar with the land masses of GTA games by this point. Even so, the game played great and there were plenty of story missions, side missions and many other miscellaneous things to do to keep yourself busy and entertained for quite some time. But once everything was collected, all the missions were done and all that was left was driving up and down the streets on Jimmy's moped, there was an undying desire to see a sequel.
A few years ago I acquired a copy of Bully: Scholarship Edition for the Xbox 360, which added more things to do, as well as beefed up the graphics and made everything look far more presentable and likewise appealing. Sadly, I had bought a copy of the game that had a hairline crack in the disc. When combining the need for the disc to be spun to be read, as well as the heat the Xbox 360's DVD drives are known for, the crack quickly grew to the point it would no longer boot up.
Although I got a fairly good taste of what Scholarship Edition was about, I never got the full experience, which only made me want an additional, more modern version of Bully even more, and I'm NOT a modern console gamer! I'm not sure where Rockstar would go with another installment of Bully, but I'm sure I'm not alone in this feeling of wanting to experience more. With all the improvements they've made in the GTA series, I bet another Bully would be nothing less than amazing.
In the game Bully you play as Jimmy Hopkins, a 15 year old with a bad attitude, which is a slight departure from the main protagonists Rockstar is putting into their GTA series. Jimmy is sent to Bullworth Academy, a boarding school, to help him adjust said attitude. While at Bullworth Jimmy makes friends and enemies along his (mis)adventures through both the school yard and the adjacent town.
Bully plays a bit like a GTA game, but has its own environmental feel and works really well, although I always felt the overall area was just too small, as I was more familiar with the land masses of GTA games by this point. Even so, the game played great and there were plenty of story missions, side missions and many other miscellaneous things to do to keep yourself busy and entertained for quite some time. But once everything was collected, all the missions were done and all that was left was driving up and down the streets on Jimmy's moped, there was an undying desire to see a sequel.
A few years ago I acquired a copy of Bully: Scholarship Edition for the Xbox 360, which added more things to do, as well as beefed up the graphics and made everything look far more presentable and likewise appealing. Sadly, I had bought a copy of the game that had a hairline crack in the disc. When combining the need for the disc to be spun to be read, as well as the heat the Xbox 360's DVD drives are known for, the crack quickly grew to the point it would no longer boot up.
Although I got a fairly good taste of what Scholarship Edition was about, I never got the full experience, which only made me want an additional, more modern version of Bully even more, and I'm NOT a modern console gamer! I'm not sure where Rockstar would go with another installment of Bully, but I'm sure I'm not alone in this feeling of wanting to experience more. With all the improvements they've made in the GTA series, I bet another Bully would be nothing less than amazing.
Monday, March 24, 2014
Saint's Row 1 and 2
About 4 years ago I was cruising ebay and found a game that caught my eye. Admittedly, I am by no means a modern gamer; I don't know what games came out for the Xbox 360 unless I actively pursued them. So when I saw Saint's Row I quickly went into research mode to see what it was.
Through roughly 10 minutes of research I found out Saint's Row was a GTA clone, of sorts. After the initial search I moved ahead to the "Lets Play" type search, where I watch a few episodes of someone playing the game, to see if I'm interested in pursuing the game any further. Turns out the answer to that question was a resounding yes, yes I was interested in pursuing Saint's Row, so I did!
I can't remember exactly what I paid, but the auction included a complete copy of Saint's Row and the Brady guide. When the package arrived I noticed it cost the seller more to ship to me than I had paid for the whole auction, which made me feel slightly uneasy, because I've done this as an ebay seller as well and it doesn't feel good paying more than I was paid to ship a product. There was nothing I could do, so I just decided to set my feelings aside and pop it into my semi-functional Xbox 360.
One of the main features of any GTA, or clone, is the plethora of vehicles you can snatch and drive around, which Saint's Row doesn't disappoint! In GTA you would steal a car, total it and run off to find a new one, yet Saint's Row had an ingenious garage system where you could store, seemingly, endless amounts of cars and never have to steal another one again, unless you wanted more of any specific car. Not only that but Saint's Row also harkened back to GTA San Andreas and offered players the ability to customize vehicles in much the same way.
Although not perfect, players were given the ability to add hydraulics, nitrous, many different wheels, custom paint jobs, among other things. Once the car was customized all you had to do was drive it into any of your garages and it would save that car, never to be lost or stolen, unlike in GTA.
Since this is the first thing I brought up about Saint's Row, I have to admit that its basically all I did for the first few days I owned the game. Endless stealing cars and finding out what all I could do to them, testing many different ways of customizing them, and only doing story missions to gain money to customize more cars! But eventually I did finish the story mode, which left a little to be desired.
The final mission, which I won't spoil here just in the off chance someone might not have played it yet, doesn't go away. So even with 100% complete the final mission is left undone and sticks out on the map like a sore thumb, unless you turn all icons off, which is possible.
Overall I found the game to be interesting, not as good as GTA, but good in its own right. But personally the strong points were the cars, the ability to customize them and the way you could store them in your garage. With many different side missions strewn about throughout the city this game kept me busy for a while, but once it was over I wanted to move forward with more!
Lucky for me, and being so far behind in modern gaming, Saint's Row is currently up to 4 games in the series, so finding a new Saint's Row wasn't impossible. So my search went to finding a copy of Saint's Row 2. I wasn't concerned about whether is was a limit edition, a platinum hits edition or just a plain release version, all I wanted was Saint's Row 2, which is exactly what I got.
Before purchasing Saint's Row 2 I saw a video from Dan (aka Nerdcubed), which made me want the game even more than I already did. So, again, I went to ebay to find myself a copy of the game. After an anxious few days of waiting the game finally arrived and I popped it into my 360 and got straight back onto the streets of Stilwater, only this time they were slightly different.
Through Dan's video, and a few other Saint's Row 2 videos I had watched, I noticed that Stilwater was different in the second game, which the story explains away. This brought a very welcome element to the game, as you're essentially exploring a brand new town, with hints of something familiar. So the player starts fresh and has to regain their reign over Stilwater in Saint's Row 2.
Again, for the first day or so I spent my time finding new cars and customizing them, as well as finding cars from the first Saints Row and using the new customizing abilities on them. The very first vehicle I saw, and stole, was a tow truck, which looked awesome and actually functions, sort of, which I knew would come in handy later in my endeavor to gain vehicles and customize them. Needless to say it took me a few days to actually start the story missions.
But once I started the story missions it really didn't take me all that long to complete them all. A few side missions here and there to gain respect to continue on my way, as well as a dozen or so retries on various missions, and within a few days I had beat Saint's Row 2. Now all I have to do is finish up all the collections and other miscellaneous odd jobs to get 100% and I can move on to Saint's Row the Third!
Although Saint's Row 2 improved over the original, in some ways it is worse, such as draw distance. Many times I found myself waiting on a street corner for a certain car to drive by and noticed that cars would pop into view then almost instantly disappear, off in the distance. As well as while I'm out on water, many water vehicles can only be seen when they're within crashing distance, you'll notice their waves in the water before you'll actually see any boat or jet ski.
Saint's Row 2 does add flying, which is another welcome change, even if the flight controls are a bit wonky. Airplanes and helicopters, as well as the ability to parachute, have helped me a few times during missions that I was just too lazy to drive to. But, again, sometimes flying, especially the helicopters or "Destroy", is more of a hassle than it is a pleasure.
Other than the few flaws I believe Saint's Row 2 is the best version of Stilwater, as it affords more freedom and air to breathe, while still packing the city with life and plenty of scenery. The first Stilwater had many annoying blockades that you'll find, especially when you're looking for the hidden CDs. All I needed to do was jump over a fence, but I simply couldn't, making it more of a chore than it needed to be.
Saint's Row 2 took care of most of the issues with the original Stilwater and made a very fun town to explore and dwell within. After I've accomplished 100% I'll be looking forward to moving to Steelport! Where I'll be staying for the next two installments of Saint's Row, beyond that who knows where we'll be.
Monday, February 3, 2014
Driver Parallel Lines: The Brother Nobody Talks About at Christmas.
I've been a fan of the Driver video game series since I tried the original. Back then it was amazing to have an expansive landscape to explore and feel like you could go anywhere you wanted, when you wanted! As with almost any game franchise, Driver tried to be competitive and in a lot of ways it succeeded, and in a lot of ways it failed.
Driver 2 was never a masterpiece, but it expanded on what the original gave us and gave the player the option of getting out of the vehicle, to drive any other vehicle you could find. Sprinkle in some events that required the player to exit the vehicle and you had a decent follow-up to the original Driver, filled with hours of things to do, explore and uncover. But where the series really took a dive was when things moved up to a new class of hardware, ala PS2 and Xbox, when the creators of Driver seemingly pushed out a half finished game that wasn't great, but ok for a single play through, if nothing more than to laugh at the complete mess of it all.
There was no doubt the team could create a Driver game for that console generation, but they just couldn't seem to finish what they started. Tanner's jump was half hearted, as if he shit his pants just before leaping, and the vehicles felt as if you were struggling to pass everyone at an already sluggish pace, where was the speed? They did, however, leave in the concept of hidden areas from Driver 2, but this only serves as a showcase for how terrible Tanner walks and his controls outside of vehicles.
Up to this point I had greatly enjoyed all of the incarnations of Driver, yes even 3, not counting any of the mobile/portable versions as I hadn't tried them. The original was still my favorite, based on its purity and simplicity, but on the horizon loomed a force, a force so big and so bold that no one could turn away from it... well no, in reality I fear, at this point, the franchise had been torn apart by competition so nobody really ever gave the fourth installment a fair chance to even survive. Which is sad too, as I feel it is far better than any of the first 3!
In 2006 Driver: Parallel Lines was unleashed for the PS2 and Xbox, but it seems nobody was listening after the boy had cried wolf too many times. Mediocre reviews abound, Driver: Parallel Lines kept selling and still it seemed nobody was saying much about it, other than it was a sad GTA clone.
Shortly after its lifespan was over I acquired an Xbox. The whole library was new to me and I went on a spree, buying used game to flesh out a meager little collection. I collected as many GTA games as I could, as well as Driv3r, and soon switched my focus to GTA "clones", such as the True Crime series. Among all the clones listed online sat Driver: Parallel Lines, never having heard about it I knew I had to find a copy and give it a try.
I remember it like it was 6 years ago, which it most likely was. I walked into ShameStop and walked over to the Xbox rack, tracked down the only copy that was in its original case that had the manual and took it up to the counter to plunk down $17.99. Being the frugal (cheap!) video game hunter I am, I walked away feeling as if that price was a bit much for a used game, so I hoped that it would live up to the $18+tax.
When I got home and sat down I wasn't exactly sure what to expect when I fired it up, but I do remember the cut scenes being remarkable, as I believe all cut scenes in the Driver series have been. After playing for a bit I was hooked, it was as if two rivals came together and had a child. The child had many aspects of both parents, but also had its own personality and qualities that made it quite good in its own right.
Unlike Driv3r, Parallel Lines was more fluid and worked better than even GTA 3, maybe on par somewhere between Vice City and San Andreas, but still very good. The antagonist controls we easy and nowhere near as clunky as before, getting in and out of cars was easy, vehicles had power, the visuals were (IMHO) better than any GTA before it. That and you weren't stuck in a single time era, after a certain part of the storyline you were allowed to free roam through 2 different eras!
Playing in 2 eras was a bit glitchy as you can still drive modern era cars in the 70s era, but other than that it was still great to have choices. Speaking of vehicles Parallel Lines has a good variety, and a MUCH better storage system than GTA had! Instead of parking your car within a designated place and hoping its there the next time you load your save, all you had to do was go to one of the selectable repair shops and pick from a list of cars you had brought in and saved along your journey.
I can't and wouldn't say Parallel Lines was as good as San Andreas, but it did look better to me. Like I said, somewhere between Vice City and San Andreas. Driver: Parallel Lines is a competent GTA clone, but I have more fun with San Andreas. San Andreas was just massive, and while Parallel Lines was no slouch it just felt a little too much like a sandbox to really give any depth the exploration.
Of all the games that I've spent countless hours with my Xbox San Andreas comes first, without a doubt. Driver: Parallel Lines comes second and I couldn't even think of a third, but it would be one of the other GTA games. Parallel Lines was a very competent Driver game, it was a very competent GTA clone (or contender), but for some reason it just never got the respect it deserves. Which is sad, because its leagues above Driv3r and that only gets talked about because of how much of a horrible train wreck it is!
Driver 2 was never a masterpiece, but it expanded on what the original gave us and gave the player the option of getting out of the vehicle, to drive any other vehicle you could find. Sprinkle in some events that required the player to exit the vehicle and you had a decent follow-up to the original Driver, filled with hours of things to do, explore and uncover. But where the series really took a dive was when things moved up to a new class of hardware, ala PS2 and Xbox, when the creators of Driver seemingly pushed out a half finished game that wasn't great, but ok for a single play through, if nothing more than to laugh at the complete mess of it all.
There was no doubt the team could create a Driver game for that console generation, but they just couldn't seem to finish what they started. Tanner's jump was half hearted, as if he shit his pants just before leaping, and the vehicles felt as if you were struggling to pass everyone at an already sluggish pace, where was the speed? They did, however, leave in the concept of hidden areas from Driver 2, but this only serves as a showcase for how terrible Tanner walks and his controls outside of vehicles.
Up to this point I had greatly enjoyed all of the incarnations of Driver, yes even 3, not counting any of the mobile/portable versions as I hadn't tried them. The original was still my favorite, based on its purity and simplicity, but on the horizon loomed a force, a force so big and so bold that no one could turn away from it... well no, in reality I fear, at this point, the franchise had been torn apart by competition so nobody really ever gave the fourth installment a fair chance to even survive. Which is sad too, as I feel it is far better than any of the first 3!
In 2006 Driver: Parallel Lines was unleashed for the PS2 and Xbox, but it seems nobody was listening after the boy had cried wolf too many times. Mediocre reviews abound, Driver: Parallel Lines kept selling and still it seemed nobody was saying much about it, other than it was a sad GTA clone.
 |
| My original game and the Limited Edition set that I found at the outlet store. |
I remember it like it was 6 years ago, which it most likely was. I walked into ShameStop and walked over to the Xbox rack, tracked down the only copy that was in its original case that had the manual and took it up to the counter to plunk down $17.99. Being the frugal (cheap!) video game hunter I am, I walked away feeling as if that price was a bit much for a used game, so I hoped that it would live up to the $18+tax.
When I got home and sat down I wasn't exactly sure what to expect when I fired it up, but I do remember the cut scenes being remarkable, as I believe all cut scenes in the Driver series have been. After playing for a bit I was hooked, it was as if two rivals came together and had a child. The child had many aspects of both parents, but also had its own personality and qualities that made it quite good in its own right.
Unlike Driv3r, Parallel Lines was more fluid and worked better than even GTA 3, maybe on par somewhere between Vice City and San Andreas, but still very good. The antagonist controls we easy and nowhere near as clunky as before, getting in and out of cars was easy, vehicles had power, the visuals were (IMHO) better than any GTA before it. That and you weren't stuck in a single time era, after a certain part of the storyline you were allowed to free roam through 2 different eras!
Playing in 2 eras was a bit glitchy as you can still drive modern era cars in the 70s era, but other than that it was still great to have choices. Speaking of vehicles Parallel Lines has a good variety, and a MUCH better storage system than GTA had! Instead of parking your car within a designated place and hoping its there the next time you load your save, all you had to do was go to one of the selectable repair shops and pick from a list of cars you had brought in and saved along your journey.
I can't and wouldn't say Parallel Lines was as good as San Andreas, but it did look better to me. Like I said, somewhere between Vice City and San Andreas. Driver: Parallel Lines is a competent GTA clone, but I have more fun with San Andreas. San Andreas was just massive, and while Parallel Lines was no slouch it just felt a little too much like a sandbox to really give any depth the exploration.
Of all the games that I've spent countless hours with my Xbox San Andreas comes first, without a doubt. Driver: Parallel Lines comes second and I couldn't even think of a third, but it would be one of the other GTA games. Parallel Lines was a very competent Driver game, it was a very competent GTA clone (or contender), but for some reason it just never got the respect it deserves. Which is sad, because its leagues above Driv3r and that only gets talked about because of how much of a horrible train wreck it is!
Nyko Wand: Skewed Review
Let me start this review off by stating clearly: I purchased my Nyko Wand USED so this in no way means that all Nyko Wands are this way, perhaps so, perhaps no. This is my blog and these are my opinions, you don't have to agree, but don't be a nuisance if mine differ greatly from your own.
If you've read any of my Project Outlet Wii entries you'll know that the only remote I had for my Wii was a purple Nyko Wand, that I acquired from the outlet store as well. Throughout the whole time I've had my Wii, the Nyko Wand didn't respond the same way I remember the official Wii remotes did. The Nyko Wand chewed through batteries at a fierce pace, it would unsync/desync often in the middle of Animal Crossing and was just generally a poor excuse for a controller.
As I stated above I did purchase it used, discarded if you will, at the Goodwill Outlet store, which leads me to assume it was already in bad shape as someone else had tossed it away with their Goodwill donateables. Or maybe this is a case of a rare factory defect, and the previous owner had already purchased a replacement before donating it. I can only run on assumption, as almost everything else I've found there has been in used shape, but still functioned as if brand new.
Excited for the coming holiday in Animal Crossing: City Folk, I woke up every day to do my 15 minutes of play, just to get things going before heading over to Netflix and watching something to pass the day. December 17th came and all of a sudden my Nyko Wand went crazy. The lights at the bottom started flashing off and on as if it were trying sync but never stopped. I pulled out the batteries and upon placing a new set in, the controller still flashed as if it assumed the new career of being a tiny, purple Christmas tree.
I waited a few minutes and it never stopped, so I did what I normally do... I took it apart to see what may be wrong with it. I checked all the solder joints and made sure everything looked as good as they could be. Knowing absolutely fuck all about a Wii remote I have to say it did no good what so ever. I figured it was just having an issue syncing to the Wii, so I pressed the buttons and waited. Nothing...
After replacing the batteries a handful of times with various other batteries the controller just stopped working completely. Being the only Wii mote I had and it being dead... no more Wii.
For what it did, the Nyko Wand was, at best, OK! Sure all Wii remotes chew through batteries, but the Nyko Wand seemed to have an even greater thirst than I remember the OEM remotes having. The unsyncing issue was a huge mess and interrupted gameplay more times than I care to recount, simply because it could!
It was used, possibly abused by the previous owner, but it gave me well more than the 25 cents I paid for it at the outlet store (I have no clue what that thing weighed, but it couldn't have cost me much more than a quarter). It hated Netflix, it hated my Wii, the thing was just trouble from the start. I wouldn't buy another Nyko Wand unless it was at Goodwill or the outlet store, based on the experience I've had with the purple one, even though this may have been a rare defective unit.
I've since bought an OEM Nintendo Wii mote and the only thing I truly miss about the Nyko Wand is the option to shut the remote off, which is a massive oversight by Nintendo in not giving them that feature. The OEM remote doesn't chug down batteries, it doesn't have to resync every 10 minutes and it generally doesn't throw a fit, like the Nyko Wand did. The only true annoyance is that I have to manually shut it off while watching Netflix or when the remote isn't in use by pulling out a battery.
Throughout the whole time I've collected video games, 3rd party brands are either hit or miss and we base our buying choices upon that. I purchased Pelican brand Xbox controllers years ago that lasted 7 months and since then Pelican has never been a choice in my mind, even if it were in the outlet store. If my OEM Wii remote would shut off when I pressed the power button shortly, I wouldn't miss the Nyko Wand at all.
If you've read any of my Project Outlet Wii entries you'll know that the only remote I had for my Wii was a purple Nyko Wand, that I acquired from the outlet store as well. Throughout the whole time I've had my Wii, the Nyko Wand didn't respond the same way I remember the official Wii remotes did. The Nyko Wand chewed through batteries at a fierce pace, it would unsync/desync often in the middle of Animal Crossing and was just generally a poor excuse for a controller.
As I stated above I did purchase it used, discarded if you will, at the Goodwill Outlet store, which leads me to assume it was already in bad shape as someone else had tossed it away with their Goodwill donateables. Or maybe this is a case of a rare factory defect, and the previous owner had already purchased a replacement before donating it. I can only run on assumption, as almost everything else I've found there has been in used shape, but still functioned as if brand new.
Excited for the coming holiday in Animal Crossing: City Folk, I woke up every day to do my 15 minutes of play, just to get things going before heading over to Netflix and watching something to pass the day. December 17th came and all of a sudden my Nyko Wand went crazy. The lights at the bottom started flashing off and on as if it were trying sync but never stopped. I pulled out the batteries and upon placing a new set in, the controller still flashed as if it assumed the new career of being a tiny, purple Christmas tree.
I waited a few minutes and it never stopped, so I did what I normally do... I took it apart to see what may be wrong with it. I checked all the solder joints and made sure everything looked as good as they could be. Knowing absolutely fuck all about a Wii remote I have to say it did no good what so ever. I figured it was just having an issue syncing to the Wii, so I pressed the buttons and waited. Nothing...
After replacing the batteries a handful of times with various other batteries the controller just stopped working completely. Being the only Wii mote I had and it being dead... no more Wii.
For what it did, the Nyko Wand was, at best, OK! Sure all Wii remotes chew through batteries, but the Nyko Wand seemed to have an even greater thirst than I remember the OEM remotes having. The unsyncing issue was a huge mess and interrupted gameplay more times than I care to recount, simply because it could!
It was used, possibly abused by the previous owner, but it gave me well more than the 25 cents I paid for it at the outlet store (I have no clue what that thing weighed, but it couldn't have cost me much more than a quarter). It hated Netflix, it hated my Wii, the thing was just trouble from the start. I wouldn't buy another Nyko Wand unless it was at Goodwill or the outlet store, based on the experience I've had with the purple one, even though this may have been a rare defective unit.
I've since bought an OEM Nintendo Wii mote and the only thing I truly miss about the Nyko Wand is the option to shut the remote off, which is a massive oversight by Nintendo in not giving them that feature. The OEM remote doesn't chug down batteries, it doesn't have to resync every 10 minutes and it generally doesn't throw a fit, like the Nyko Wand did. The only true annoyance is that I have to manually shut it off while watching Netflix or when the remote isn't in use by pulling out a battery.
Throughout the whole time I've collected video games, 3rd party brands are either hit or miss and we base our buying choices upon that. I purchased Pelican brand Xbox controllers years ago that lasted 7 months and since then Pelican has never been a choice in my mind, even if it were in the outlet store. If my OEM Wii remote would shut off when I pressed the power button shortly, I wouldn't miss the Nyko Wand at all.
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