Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City, San Andreas (Xbox)
Over the past few weeks I have been buying from used game stores copies of the older 3D Grand Theft auto games on Xbox and Xbox 360. I purchased GTA 3, Vice City, San Andreas, and GTA 4. I bought and played all of these games back when they came out but over the years I sold and traded them in for newer games. I wanted to relive these games from my past to see how they hold up, especially compared to GTA 5 which I have on the Xbox one. I have tested all the games to make sure they work but I have only put a significant amount of time into playing GTA 3 as I am trying to go in order. I am not sure if my plan is to play each game to completion but I would like to play each game at least as long as it takes to see how they hold up. While I played these games on the PS2 back in the day, I no longer have that system so I will be paying the Xbox versions of them (specifically on my Xbox 360 ).
I had played a little of GTA 1 and 2 on the Playstation and I remember wishing these games were in 3D and how cool that would be. After seeing pictures of GTA 3 in magazines at the time it definitely became a game I was looking forward to. I got GTA 3 for the PS2 on the same day as Tony Hawk 3 and while I was still looking forward to GTA 3, THPS3 was the game I was looking forward to more and thus was the first one I played that night. When I did get around to playing GTA3 I was mesmerised as I had never played a open world 3D game like that before. I would just drive around the first Island of Portland listening to the radio (Chatterbox and flashback were my favorite)for hours. For the year between the release for GTA3 and Vice City I would go back to GTA3 and either go through the story missions, hunt around for the hidden packages, or just drive around aimlessly. Even as the game worlds got bigger in later GTA releases I was never as impressed with them as I was in GTA3 and as such it remains to this day my favorite GTA game.
My appreciation of GTA3 made my anticipation of Vice City even stronger. Magazine stories and pictures were no longer enough, I would spend a long time trying to watch small videos of the main character firing a gun or and video that was released online (which was very few back then). Needless to say that year felt like an eternity (very different for me now a days) While I did love the game, it was not as great for me as GTA3 was. The soundtrack was great as was the atmosphere and the story was a major improvement over GTA3 but it was for some reason a little bit of a let down for me. Regardless I still very much enjoyed playing it back in the day. I would drive around aimlessly, play (and complete) the story missions, cause mayhem (especially once I figured out how to get the attack helicopter) all the while listening to that great 80's soundtrack.
I would have to wait another 2 years for the next GTA game, San Andreas. 2004 was a big year in gaming for me as I bought Halo 2, Half-Life 2, and San Andreas and among those GTA was my least favorite. San Andreas was (and still is) in fact my least favorite GTA game in the 3D era. I did not like that game at all, not the story, not the characters, not the changes that were made to the gameplay, not the soundtrack, even the map itself I felt was a step down. San Andreas is the only 3D GTA game that I have not finished the story mode on. I really did not like the RPG elements that they added to eat (especially the weight and muscle maintenance system). In taking a second look at this game I hope to see some redemption for it as I understand it is the favourite GTA game of many people.
I have gotten a few missions into GTA3 and will continue going through it until I feel satisfied with my updated impressions to move on to the next game. I am currently playing through newer games as well so it will take a while for me to get through all of them. As I go I plan on writing a little something here on each game as I am through with them.
Sunday, September 25, 2016
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Titanfall 2 Technical Test Impressions
Over the past couple of weekends I have played the Titanfall 2 Technical Test multiplayer and I just felt like typing a few things about it.
The biggest change from the first game ( which was my favorite game from 2014) is the grappling hook, which allows you to traverse short distances very quickly. This is useful across gaps, up walls, and to Titans (both friendly and opposing). I most liked using to effectively vault over long distances by aiming the hook at the top of objects and boost jumping as soon as contact is made. The hook is also useful for escaping death quickly such as finding yourself in from of a Titan that is about to mow you down. I would grapple a nearby wall or building ad zipp out of the titan's line of sight. The Grappling Hook is very useful and fun, to the point that I'm concerned that the other tactical options for your pilot are going to be underwhelming/ not useful by comparison. Just as the jump pack was integral to the Titanfall 1 experience, so I feel is the Grapple to Titanfall 2. Imagine being able to build a class in Titanfall that does not have a jump pack, the game I feel would be missing the reason why it exists. I feel the same applies to the grapple in Titanfall 2 and as such I never even bothered trying the other tactical options. This could be a problem that is solved by balancing before the game's late October release date.
The other thing of note is the limited customization of Titan builds. In the first game, you could equip any weapon and any ability to any Titian. In this early build of Titanfall 2, the weapon, abilities, and ordinance are set for each Titan. Some Titans will have the vortex shield and most will not. The lack of Titan customization concerns me because there does not seem to be an increase in Pilot options to make up for it. I hope the game has a large and diverse selection of Titans (there is supposed to be one with a sword), this would help out quite a bit.
Overall I enjoyed the time I spent with this Technical Test (other than getting ganked on my way to the bank and being sent to the other side of the map with half of my previous bounty amount and not getting back there in time to deposit the rest of it. I will be buying this game when it comes out and I hope to write more about it when it comes out for real.
The biggest change from the first game ( which was my favorite game from 2014) is the grappling hook, which allows you to traverse short distances very quickly. This is useful across gaps, up walls, and to Titans (both friendly and opposing). I most liked using to effectively vault over long distances by aiming the hook at the top of objects and boost jumping as soon as contact is made. The hook is also useful for escaping death quickly such as finding yourself in from of a Titan that is about to mow you down. I would grapple a nearby wall or building ad zipp out of the titan's line of sight. The Grappling Hook is very useful and fun, to the point that I'm concerned that the other tactical options for your pilot are going to be underwhelming/ not useful by comparison. Just as the jump pack was integral to the Titanfall 1 experience, so I feel is the Grapple to Titanfall 2. Imagine being able to build a class in Titanfall that does not have a jump pack, the game I feel would be missing the reason why it exists. I feel the same applies to the grapple in Titanfall 2 and as such I never even bothered trying the other tactical options. This could be a problem that is solved by balancing before the game's late October release date.
The other thing of note is the limited customization of Titan builds. In the first game, you could equip any weapon and any ability to any Titian. In this early build of Titanfall 2, the weapon, abilities, and ordinance are set for each Titan. Some Titans will have the vortex shield and most will not. The lack of Titan customization concerns me because there does not seem to be an increase in Pilot options to make up for it. I hope the game has a large and diverse selection of Titans (there is supposed to be one with a sword), this would help out quite a bit.
Overall I enjoyed the time I spent with this Technical Test (other than getting ganked on my way to the bank and being sent to the other side of the map with half of my previous bounty amount and not getting back there in time to deposit the rest of it. I will be buying this game when it comes out and I hope to write more about it when it comes out for real.
Sunday, July 31, 2016
Max Payne (Xbox)
After playing through Max Payne for the original Xbox and thinking about it I finally decided to type out some words on this game that i have not played through in about 10 years. I purchased a copy of it and its sequel for the original Xbox for about $11 at a used game store which gave me an opportunity to revisit these titles from my earlier days of gaming to see if they still held up.
As expected the Dream sequences were annoying but I manage to make it through them (the first one I managed to remember the correct turning sequence through the maze). One thing that was unexpected was the length of the game, it was a lot longer than I remember. There were whole levels that I had completely forgotten about such as the Shipyard and tanker level (especially the platform on rails sequence). The story carried the game all over the place from crappy apartments to secret underground government military bases. Told mostly trough still images from a graphic novel that gets the job done while keeping it interesting. I was surprised how little some major characters were featured in the game given their importance to the series such a Mona Sax, Alfred Warrden, and Vladimir Lemm, though they were much more prominent in Max Payne 2.
Overall the game played pretty much how I remembered it. There is a common misconception that you can not use the bullet time with out the shoot-dodge mechanic. This is not true, but doing so uses that meter much more than shoot-dodge and as such most people avoided using it. I wound up playing it like it was Max Payne 2 by triggering bullet time when entering a room and ending it with a dive to finish off the last guy, at least how I did it ideally. This may have been how I first played it back in the day as well as I usually went against the grain on how I played it by not just shoot-dodging my way through it.
I definitely enjoyed playing through Max Payne again, it has held up well although I do expect to appreciate Max Payne 2 more due to the way I play these games. I will have to write another piece when I finish that game.
As expected the Dream sequences were annoying but I manage to make it through them (the first one I managed to remember the correct turning sequence through the maze). One thing that was unexpected was the length of the game, it was a lot longer than I remember. There were whole levels that I had completely forgotten about such as the Shipyard and tanker level (especially the platform on rails sequence). The story carried the game all over the place from crappy apartments to secret underground government military bases. Told mostly trough still images from a graphic novel that gets the job done while keeping it interesting. I was surprised how little some major characters were featured in the game given their importance to the series such a Mona Sax, Alfred Warrden, and Vladimir Lemm, though they were much more prominent in Max Payne 2.
Overall the game played pretty much how I remembered it. There is a common misconception that you can not use the bullet time with out the shoot-dodge mechanic. This is not true, but doing so uses that meter much more than shoot-dodge and as such most people avoided using it. I wound up playing it like it was Max Payne 2 by triggering bullet time when entering a room and ending it with a dive to finish off the last guy, at least how I did it ideally. This may have been how I first played it back in the day as well as I usually went against the grain on how I played it by not just shoot-dodging my way through it.
I definitely enjoyed playing through Max Payne again, it has held up well although I do expect to appreciate Max Payne 2 more due to the way I play these games. I will have to write another piece when I finish that game.
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