Flashback

If you come across an Another World review, you will probably find a Flashback review somewhere nearby. It's actually pretty funny how people seem to instictively associate these two games. I remember walking to my hometown's only game store about fifteen years ago and asking the man behind the counter if he knew anything about Another World 2 (I'd read about the then-upcoming sequel in a magazine). He replied with "Of course, we have it right here" and showed me Flashback. By that time, I had already played Flashback for months, so I was kind enough to tell the guy "that's not quite what I meant, sir" and leave the premises. (a ten-year-old kid laughing at an thirty-year-old bald guy would be a little inappropriate and that was the ONLY game store in my town, I did want to go back there someday).

The truth is, that, if you think about it, these two games don't have quite so much in common as people say. The story is again science-fiction, but this time we deal with distant future, interplanetary travel, teleports, aliens, high-tech devices and so on. The protagonist actually SPEAKS, as most of the NPC's do. The gameplay is more platform-based as on each screen we have three levels which are constant. We have a much wider array of movements which are always executable, unlike Another World, where most of them were trigger-based (they worked in specific locations, under specific circumstances). And we have an inventory screen.

The game was a huge success (the most successful French game ever) and on the Internet you could probably find hundreds if not thousands of reviews, so I'll just skip the casual stuff and tell you why *I* like this game a lot. First of all, I like games which mix the genres. Take a shooter, take an adventure (with usable items, puzzles, dialogues etc), pour a good or even decent enough story all over it and you got me. Why oh why weren't there more games like that? I was able to find just one, and that's onEscapee (maybe I'll write something about it in the future) but even in spite of the remarkably good graphics and the great music (I especially like the intro song, but, really, the guy might have used some singing lessons) the game wasn't even remotely as good as it's two grand predecessors.
And what about today? Today we have sandbox games, which I enjoy a lot, large RPG-FPSes like Mass Effect, which I enjoy a lot as well and unconventional games like Omikron or Fahrenheit (also known as Indigo Prophecy) which I simply adore (Okay, okay they screwed up the shooting and fighting sequences in Omikron, but damn it, at least they tried!) The world of today's games is much richer than it used to be fifteen years ago and as everyone tries to make their games more realistic, they throw in elements from different genres every now and again. The golden line of ultimate balance between thinking and fighting is really thin however, and one can easily see not a lot of games in the history have achieved that level. Many don't even try. What a shame.

Alright, back to Earth...
The direct sequel, Fade to Black, disappointed me a little. The controls were a little awkward - especially aiming - the graphics were... Let's just say the game was a fully 3D Third-Person-Shooter and the year was 1995, the glorious Doom-clone era. There were virtually no textures (let alone low-res ;-P). The game turned out anything but successful, simply because everyone felt this was NOT Flashback.

A similar thing occurred with the so-called CD versions of the original game (these include DOS-CD, Sega CD, CD-i, Jaguar and probably 3DO ports) which featured new music, dialogues read by actors (pretty badly, I might add) and, above all, the cutscenes remade into 3D. If you look at some screenshots of those ports, you'll see what I mean. The colors are all wrong, completely different from what we see during the actual gameplay, the scenes are considerably shorter (for the sake of disk space, I guess) and therefore more chaotic, finally, in some cases their sci-fi action style manage to completely alter the game's atmosphere. Some people might have liked it, I believe, but despite the obvious eye-candy features of the CDs, most people, including Yours Truly, prefer the original.

One last thing...
There was an attempt to revive the franchise on portable systems, but I'm actually glad it failed. Just take a look.

He'll make games of your dreams

Some interesting news come straight from Germany. Uwe Boll decided to finish his career as a movie director and open his own game design company - the Stuhldrang Studio will, simiallry to Maxis, focus mainly on making sim games. Their first title will be a movie director simulation.

When asked what made him change careers Boll responded laconically - "I got bored with making movies."

Stay tuned for more info about the infamous director's games.

Happy Easter

The Low-res Textures team wishes you Happy Easter (better late than never)!
May all your gaming wishes become a reality!

Suckers

What is the best way to make money in the video game industry? I bet your first guess would be to make a really good game that will sell millions of copies. Well, you could do that, but that’s for suckers.
There are two other ways. The first one would be to make a game that will sell at least fairly well and then convert it to every goddamn platform including cell phones screwing the fans and consumers along the way. I call it the “EA way”, or the “Resident Evil Syndrome”. The other way is to release a game, and after a few months release it again with a few extras and say it’s the proper, complete experience and if you waited for two years for it and pre-ordered the original release fourteen months before it came out and you are a gullible moron. I call that “the Konami Effect”. I’m sure you know what I mean. Let me tell you why I’m bringing it up. Capcom decided to release Lost Planet: Colonies. If you think this is a new iteration or an expansion pack for this game you’re in for an unpleasant surprise that could only sprout in a cunning Asian mind. You’ll get the same game as the original Lost Planet just with some new playable characters (the point is?) and new multiplayer modes and I’ll bet that it will come as a new game at full price. I, for one, cannot find a justification to pay twice for the same game (a very generic shooter if I might add). Sure, it’s nice for those that don’t have the game yet, but I would still choose the original version that will cost one third of the new one. It’s like having dysentery for a week, then having an eight month break, but after those eight months you feel something is wrong again so you go to a doctor. The doctor examines you and asks if you want the same dysentery again, but for three days only or do you want it for week again and a sore throat. I’m sure there are some masochists who would choose the latter, but I’m sure there are not that many of them.
In an age of downloadable content I see that as a friggn steal. It should have been released six months ago as a bonus pack for five or ten bucks.
It’s becoming a common theme especially amongst Japanese companies to make money on the same thing over and over again.
This is the reason I won’t but Metal Gear Solid 4 right after the release, even though I’m a big fan of the series. Just like with every other MGS there probably will be a “full experience” version released a few months after the original. Metal Gear Solid 4: Substitution?
You can think of this ran as a prelude to my next editorial where I will explain why I have no real respect for the likes of Kojima and Kutaragi, but I do for Mikami and Miyamoto.

Readers wanted

As you probably noticed we haven't written anything for Press Play on Tape last week, or actually haven't written anything at all. This was mainly because of the depressing fact that we didn't have new visitors on the site for a few weeks in a row (at least acording to statistics). No use writing if there is nobody reading it (excluding Madaraczlep, our faitful reader).

If I am wrong - there are people reading our blog, I encourage you to take part in our poll.

Walker

A neat little game released in 1993 on Amiga by DMA Design (currently known as Rockstar North). Not particularly long (5 levels, 2 stages each), very straightforward, almost unbeatable, yet insanely sweet. There is a bipedal mech called Walker armed with two powerful cannons and nothing else, and several tons of various military equipment (not to mention several hundred soldiers).

All they do is just keep coming in horrendously large waves - soldiers, trucks, buggies, tanks, missile launchers, trains, choppers, planes, airships, some futuristic alien vehicles - and all you do is shoot them or crush them with Walker's huge paws if they come too close. You got the energy bar and a heat bar which may shut down the cannons if you become too trigger-happy. That's it. Sounds like a zillion other 2D shooters we've all played before, yet there are some features which made the game stand out a little. First of all, the screen moves right-to-left, rather than traditionally left-to-right. NeXT, the controls were also somewhat innovative as the player had to use both keyboard (left and right for moving Walker) and mouse (for aiming and shooting - LMB to shoot, RMB to lock on targets). There was virtually no music, except for the really cool intro screen tune and its expanded version playing while you get to watch the highscores. The only sounds you hear are gunshots, explosions and screams. Sweeet.
(there are also some radio voices available to turn on if you have more memory, but they suck).
The background graphics were very dark and gritty which created a heavy atmosphere, yet the Walker model is very smooth and detailed, as are the enemy vehicles.

But that's just superficial stuff. The core of the game - the very thing which made Amiga owners proud of their gear - is the mayhem. You press the mouse button, move the crosshair around the screen and everything disappears, usually having been converted into bloody pulps or burning junk in a beautiful rhapsody of fire and sparks. Just how many games today give you that sense of unstoppable destructive power?

Speaking of the unstoppable, nothing's perfect of course and Walker does have some flaws, the most serious one being the incredible difficulty level. If you have beat the game without cheats than either you are a God, or Satan. There are simply no other options. Fortunately the rest of us mortals can enjoy the game with trainers, where you can for example disable the overheating, turn on the godmode or select a desired level (Walker, like many games of early nineties, had no level codes, let alone savegames).

I said it before and I'll say it again: I want to see a remake. Windows, PS3 Network, Live Arcade. Anything. This game deserves it.

Flimbo's Quest

I must admit, I have never completed this game because at the age of 8 when I was playing it FQ proved to be too challenging for me. I’ve got as far as the last level, but the friggin ghost always managed to take away my last life. However, thanks to my dear friend I got the chance to see the ending (thanks Adam). I have many fond memories connected with this game. It was one of my first and certainly my favorite game for the C64.

Flimbo’s Quest is a run’n;gun platformer with a fairly high difficulty level.
It tells a story of Flimbo (obviously) whose fiancee was kidnapped by an evil scientist - Fransz Dandruff (imagine that :)). The bigot created a machine that draws life energy from others and prolongs Dandruffs life.

Flimbo must get through seven levels the last being the mad scientist’s laboratory. On each level Flimbo needs to find a number of magic scrolls and bring them to Dazz Bazian – a helpful wizard running a small shop in each level. To find the scrolls however, you need to find a glowing GUM (Genetically Undesirable Mutant). Along the way Flimbo will need to fight off other GUMs and pick up coins (to buy stuff from the shop) and occasional powerups (including an hourglass to increase the time to finish the level, weapon upgrade and a bomb that destroys all enemies on the screen). Each level has a different theme and different enemies.

The graphics are very good for C64 standards with great use of colour, fluid screen scrolling and nice character animations. There is a nice variety in enemy types and there are leves specific creatures to avoid repetitiveness.

The controls are fast and responsive which is something not very often seen in C64 games.

The game featured two music tracks and I swear to God I still can hum them after all those years:)

Besides the tape version the game was also distributed on a cartridge with 4 other games (including my Dad's all time favourite - Klax). The cardridge version was superior in that respect that there was no loading :D

Pun intended

PC games don’t sell well. It’s an undeniable fact and you can’t do anything about it. At the end of January, if I’m not mistaking, the critically acclaimed (to an unhealthy degree if you ask me, the game is not THAT good) Crysis sold just over one million copies.
You probably think that’s not bad, but let me make a comparison. To be fair let’s take another overhyped game – Halo 3. Now, after a few months on the market Crytek’s game sold over a million copies. Bungie’s game on the other hand “sold” over four times better even before it was released (estimated four million preorders in North America alone). I have no idea how many copies of Halo were sold by the end of January, but I’m guessing it was a LOT. To add to Crysis’, let’s face it, utter failure let’s compare how many people have a PC capable of running Crysis (even if on low settings) and how many have a 360? What would be the ratio - 10:1?

Why is that? Is it because of the high piracy level with PC games, or maybe because you need a plutonium powered PC with eight graphic cards, fifteen gigabytes of RAM, a ten-core CPU and a pool filled with liquid hydrogen built next to your house to cool your machine to actually run the game with a decent framerate?

What’s even more interesting is that Electronic Arts (the game’s publisher) didn’t expect Crysis would sell well at all, as their spokesman stated that…and I quote: “…Crysis sold more copies that we have expected.” (Ok, that might not be an exact quote, but I can’t be bothered to look it up again).

Other big PC games didn’t sell well either. Unreal Tournament III and a PC version of Call of Duty 4 (which sold phenomenal on 360 and PS3) were particularly unsuccessful if you consider their hype.

The PC gaming market is in a lousy condition and to prove that I am right read this – at the last Game Developers Conference game and hardware developers announced that they will form a PC Gaming Alliance to alleviate the cripled PC gaming (those developers include: Intel, AMD, Nvidia, Microsoft, Dell, Acer, Razer, Epic and Activision). A desperate move for desperate times if you ask me.