Posted on September 19, 2012
And now, for something completely different!
You’ll notice that one game will be curiously absent from my Top 100 countdown. I’ve probably dedicated more hours to this series of games than I ever have to Mario or Zelda titles, and this one game was considered (until recently) to be the cream of the crop.
2003 – Sierra (PC)
NASCAR Racing 2003 Season is the final NASCAR game released by Papyrus, the end of a long line of simulators dating back to 1994. At the time of its release, NR2003 was the most in-depth racing simulator on the market. You could tinker with every minute detail of the car, from shocks and springs, tire pressures, camber, gears, all the way to track bar adjustments and steering ratios. The game even had a great paint booth for cars, and if you were handy with Photoshop, schemes could get even more complex.
Driver Denny Hamlin was a Nextel Cup Series rookie in 2006, and a race at Pocono Raceway was looming on the horizon. Aside from the ARCA Series (which is not affiliated with NASCAR), there are no lower-tired divisions that run at that track, one of the most unique and difficult on the circuit. He had to learn the track, but with testing rules being strict at the time, options were limited.
Of course, he turned to NR2003. One virtual lap at a time, he learned every bump on the track, how the car would react to certain setups, what the tire wear might be like. No, he didn’t get a seat-of-the-pants feel for it (as in, he didn’t get to feel the G’s, the heat of the car, the smell of burning rubber, etc), but the feel of the gaming wheel in his hands told him much of what he needed to know.
At Pocono in 2006, Hamlin did just fine. Twice.
He did pretty well for himself. In the June event at the Pennsylvania track, he won the pole position. Halfway through the race, a blown tire all but ended his chances at victory. He was mired back in the pack, but made a miraculous recovery and won the race by a mile. When the series came back to Pocono in July, Hamlin won the pole again, and won the race by an even bigger margin.
Hamlin credited his time with NR2003 as being the catalyst for his success at the track he’d never been on before that first practice session.
I had owned the original game way back in ’95 (what’s a “force feedback”???), then eventually got 1999 Season, and recieved NASCAR Racing 4 in 2001 as a graduation present. I felt like my skills had improved enough through the years, and I dabbled in racing online against random people from around the globe. Finding a tight-knit group that raced NR2003, and more importantly, raced clean and fair was hard to do; but I got lucky.
Me running some NASCAR Racing 4 tests from the floor in early ’01. Who needs a chair?
The main roadblock I had in joining online racing communities was the fact that I didn’t have high-speed internet at home. In July of 2005, that changed. Having gone to a local sim racing competition with a grand prize of a race trip to Loudon, New Hampshire (which I qualified for, but couldn’t compete in, due to a technicality), I heard about the New Brunswick Virual Racing League. I signed up immediately after getting high-speed, hastily downloaded a paint scheme among the tens of thousands that were posted online, and went racing ASAP.
I started my first race off pretty well, but the game ended up disqualifying me for driving in reverse to find my pit stall! 100% my fault! Rookie mistake!
Of course, I didn’t let that get me down. The group of competitors was so easy to get along with, and I found I was quite at home when 8:30 on Tuesday nights rolled around! We all got to know how we raced one another on the track, and I even managed to snag a couple victories in the latter part of that season.
I was lucky enough to win my fair share of races and season championships along the way before finally hanging up my sim racing gloves at the end of the 2010 NBVRL season. I’m not completely done, since I still feel the need for speed sometimes, and I’ll probably eventually get back into it.
My first attempt at a custom paint scheme. This wasn’t the final product, as I changed the nose a bit, lowered the numbers and made them less blurry.
So, pray tell… what does this have to do with the blog, aside from it (technically) being a video game?
Three of my fierce competitors over the years were Rejean Leblanc, Brent Roy (who now races weekly at Speedway 660) and Jared Meade. This trio of young drivers came together and formed Angry Angus Racing, one the first “organized” multi-car teams in NBVRL history. A virtual version of Hendrick Motorsports, if you will.
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and Jared had the great idea to incorporate his current online racing endeavour (a game called Live for Speed) as well as his professional real life go-karting career into a fund-raising effort for the CIBC’s Run for the Cure. The races Jared and Rejean participate in are broadcasted online, and their car will be coloured pink to promote the effort.
If Jared’s fund-raising goal of $1,000 is met, then not only will the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation recieve greatly appreciated funds, he will race a pink kart for the final race of his season!!
We’ve raced pretty hard back-and-forth online over the years, so for me to see him in a pink kart would be pretty awesome.
So please, go here and donate if you can. Everybody wins when Jared races in pink!!
Here is the Live for Speed game, as well as the online broadcast’s mention of Jared’s and AAR’s fundraising efforts. Every little bit helps!
Back to the countdown tomorrow!
Posted on September 18, 2012
My Top 100: #85 – Sonic the Hedgehog
1991 – Sega (Genesis, Master System, Game Gear)
Console wars these days are pretty tame. It’s mostly limited to back-and-forth comments on YouTube videos by people so riled up they forget all sense of proper grammar, while the companies themselves tend to avoid flat-out bashing the other guy. After all, both current generation consoles (Nintendo’s Wii not included) are pretty much the same. Both consoles are great, and aside from the PS3’s inclusion of a Blu-Ray player, they’re the same! Don’t deny it!
Back in the early 90’s, however, it was pretty serious and cut-throat stuff. Sega Genesis ads in gaming mags called out Nintendo for being behind the graphics curve. Nintendo went on the attack as well, emphasizing that gameplay on the was more important than how a game looks (which sounds familiar). Other companies tried to join the system-bashing spree, but it was pretty much just the two heavyweights going at it.
On the playground (is where I spent most of my days), I’d often get into arguments with other kids over which console was better. I knew Sega had the better-looking games, and I was somewhat jealous of my friends with Genesises (Genesi?). Deep down, though, I felt the games on NES were more genuinely fun, and I ran with that argument a lot.
When the Super NES came out, I was thrilled that I finally had Nintendo-quality gaming with the advanced graphics I had been jealous of. Not only that, but my cousin had a Genesis, and was never willing to trade consoles if all she’d get out of it was a simple old NES. One summer, she took my Super NES while I got to keep her Genesis for a few weeks. It was a strange feeling, since I felt like I was cheating on my console. I had gone over to the dark side, but Sonic the Hedgehog was all mine!
No wonder us Nintendo fans were worried. Sonic had great platforming and some crazy speed and stunts to go along with it, and I couldn’t help but marvel at all the colours on the screen as they zoomed by. It was a simple kind of fun that you don’t get a whole lot these days…
For example, when looking at a PS3 exclusive, Xbox 360 owners won’t say “Aw, nothing I have looks or plays like that.” No, games look great across the board, and gameplay is pretty much as meaningless as it’s ever been. Even once I had a Super NES, I’d see Genesis exclusives and think they looked like new and completely original experiences. Today, it just seems like it’s Call of Duty x 1,000,000.
(Bitter, old gamer semi-rant over.)
This was one of the biggest games when I was a kid, so the large amounts of fun I had with it were compressed into very short time frames. It’s a classic, and if you haven’t played it, do it up!!
Oh no, you Nintendidn’t!!!
Posted on September 17, 2012
My Top 100: #86 – RBI Baseball 3
1991 – Tengen (NES, Genesis)
When I was younger, I didn’t really know why some NES cartridges looked different than usual. I managed to rent some Camerica (gold) and Color Dreams (light blue) games a few times in Baie Sainte-Anne, which seemed like a great spot to find strange titles. Tengen was another company whose cartridges were different, opting for black and a slightly different shape with two little grips on it… they looked pretty snazzy, and I never really considered them out of the ordinary.
As it turns out, Nintendo had some pretty strict control over what content NES games could have. This is common knowledge to video game addicts now, but when I finally learned this, it all made sense. Good ol’ quality control!!! You know, LJN games notwithstanding.
Atari was actually releasing games under the Tengen name, throwing its name into the ring of companies who had to bypass the 10NES lock-out chip. As far as I can recall, however, the quality of the majority of these games was pretty good!
*Oh man, memories…*
RBI Baseball 3 is the only Tengen game I ever owned, and I played it a TON. I had never played a sports game before it that was licensed by a major league player’s association, which meant that I got to play as the real guys! Kelly Gruber, Mark McGwire, Ken Griffey Jr., Jose Canseco… they were all there! It was incredible!
I watched baseball religiously when I was little, about as religiously as I watch NASCAR these days. In my mind, if I could play as the Toronto Blue Jays and win in the game against whatever team they were going up against that night, then the real Jays could pull it off, too. Of course, it was all superstition, and the Blue Jays were a pretty stacked team for a while. It was almost expected of them to win on a nightly basis! Well, expected from me, anyway.
I like to take a little bit of credit for their two World Series titles. They did have to go through the Oakland A’s in ’92, and with the McGwire\Canseco duo hitting home runs like crazy in RBI3, I had to work pretty hard to beat them… but I always did.
You’re welcome!
Posted on September 14, 2012
My Top 100: #87 – Rock Band 3
2010 – PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, DS (Harmonix, MTV Games)
There are only three of these rhythm games on my countdown, and they’re all on it for various reasons. Rock Band 3 is on it because it is the ultimate realization of the Guitar Hero dream.
The dinky plastic drums had been around since the first game in the franchise, and downloadable track packs were now widely accepted as the new normal… but from the get-go, even before the first one came out, I thought a Piano\Keyboard Hero game was a must. I wasn’t sure how it would be pulled off, or how ridiculous it might be, but it would be fantastic!
Lo and behold, the keyboard peripheral was released alongside RB3 in late 2010, opening up a world of possibilities for downloadable content! Not only that, but my wife was now more willing to play it with me! Whoo!
As mentioned above, the setlists are greatly expanded, thanks to the inclusion of keys. Artists like Lady Gaga (you know, for when I play with my niece…), Queen, Meat Loaf and Fleetwood Mac all joined in, along with countless 80’s and 90’s hits you’d never be able to play properly without some kind of keyboard.
So, taking into account previous Rock Band setlists (which you can rip to your HD to avoid having to change games all the time) and downloadable tracks, you’re looking at about 1,500 songs to choose from (at the least) on this game when playing at home, or rocking out at a party. That is somewhat insane.
The inclusion of Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” alone makes the game worth buying!
“Did he just… no, no, he didn’t. Let’s keep dancing.”
Posted on September 13, 2012
My Top 100: #88 – Enter the Matrix
2003 – GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC (Shiny, WB Interactive)
Here’s another game on the list that was panned by critics, but gets my thumbs up! Yeah, it could be glitchy, and it was a bit repetitive… but dammit, it was cool!!!
The Wachowskis wanted 2003 to be the year of The Matrix, apparently. The much-hyped Reloaded was released in mid-May, with The Animatrix and Enter the Matrix released pretty much that same week; the second sequel, Revolutions, was to be released that November, with the MMO The Matrix Online to be released shortly after.
Indeed, it was a smörgåsbord of platforms to tell a story with.
*Smörgåsbord: a type of Scandinavian meal served buffet-style with multiple dishes of various foods on a table, originating in Sweden.*
We had seen slow-motion “bullet-time” in gaming before, most notably in Max Payne. The idea behind that game, however, was probably in response to the popular slow-motion effects in that first Matrix movie. It was time for the new kings of slow-mo to have a gaming go at it.
I loved how the game really felt like it had a place in the franchise; on one hand, you had Don Davis’ soundtrack to get you pumped, and on the other, you could activate the slow-mo and pull off some ridiculous action moves. No, you weren’t Neo, but Niobe and Ghost could hang right there with him in terms of fighting and shooting skills.
I never tinkered with it too much, but there was also a complex “hacking” portion to the game. If you dug deep enough, you could unlock all kinds of things.
This was one of two games I purchased with my Xbox console during that summer of 2003, along with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. It was one of my first big purchases after getting my first “real” job that previous winter, and I’ll always love this game because it was my first experience on the new-to-me console.
The green of the Matrix code always reminds me of the green from the Xbox Dashboard, which was pretty damn snazzy.
Posted on September 12, 2012
My Top 100: #89 – Mortal Kombat (2011)
2011 – PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 (NetherRealm Studios)
Isn’t fan service awesome? Mortal Kombat (often called MK9 for short) delivered pretty much everything the typical old school MK fan was looking for.
Mortal Kombat: Armageddon was intended to be the last hurrah for the series when it was released in 2006, incorporating pretty much every character that existed through the years… the only one that didn’t make it was Hornbuckle, but only the hardcore fans knew who he was, anyway. At the end of the game, it appeared that the MK universe was decimated with Shao Kahn claiming victory over every realm. Apparently, that’s a bad deal.
Ed Boon was clearly pulling everyone’s leg. The series’ co-creator managed to twist that ending around, turning it into some crazy alternate universe game that only Mortal Kombat could ever pull off properly. This was, after all, the series that had pretty much every one of its characters die and come back with a vengeance. The stories were over the top and ridiculous since that first game, so OF COURSE the storyline wasn’t over.
The PlayStation 3 version of the game is the one I picked up, mostly due to the inclusion of Kratos (from God of War) as a playable character. Apparently, Netherrealm Studios tried desperately to get an exclusive character for the Xbox 360 edition of the game (Master Chief? Kameo? Erm, Conker???), but things just didn’t work out for that plan.
In any case, MK9 goes back to the basics in terms of gameplay, bringing back the same arcade feeling from the first few games. Gone were the multiple forms of martial arts, and gone was the storyline where everything got convoluted and went to crap; at the end of Armageddon, Raiden somehow managed to turn the clock back to the beginning of the first tournament. Far fetched, sure, but this is MK, after all.
The game has a Story Mode that spans the first three games in the series, a Challenge Tower for those who like to switch it up a little bit, a Krypt with endless goodies to unlock, and finally, four downloadable characters; Skarlet, Kenshi, Rain and Freddie Kreuger. Special “retro” costumes and fatalities were also added as DLC, which made this the first fighting game (that I was interested in, anyway) to still be garnering hype six months after release. The new Street Fighter games did something similar, but they weren’t my cup of tea.
Maybe it was the fact that I love the MK universe, and maybe I just a yearned for new games not to suck. Whatever it was, I wasted plenty of hours on this one. Thanks, Ed Boon!
Somehow, this guy seems to fit in nicely.
Posted on September 11, 2012
My Top 100: #90 – Power Blade
1991 – NES (Taito)
*Thanks to RF Generation for the image, and everything else that helped me make this list, for that matter!*
Arnold Schwarzenegger was pretty much everywhere for a while. Even where Arnold technically wasn’t, like the cover of this overlooked classic, there he was…
Power Blade is Taito’s answer to the Mega Man games in that you have different “sectors” that can be played through in almost any order you want. NOVA, the game’s protagonist (obviously a hybrid of a few Arnold characters), has to eliminate an alien threat to each sector of Earth’s “Master Computer” with nothing but his trusty and very much upgradeable Power Blade… the baddest-ass boomerang you’ve ever seen.
I find the level structure and controls somewhat similar to the Batman game for NES, even though it’s not quite as difficult and unforgiving as that. You could throw your weapon in eight directions, much like Contra, and travel different paths if you wanted to. Some paths would lead to power ups or other bonuses like the Power Suit, which fired a wall of flame instead of the usual boomerang. Other paths would have NPC’s to interact with, usually some kind of side mission that unlocked other areas. Every sector felt unique, and I loved exploring them. The bosses were pretty funky, too, all with their own themes and whatnot.
I can’t really describe the game any more, because that’s pretty much all there was to it! It’s just one of those games that was really simple and fun, and a nice change of pace from the usual Mega Man wannabes I’d rent. The sequel added various Power Suits and was awesome as well, but my fun was mostly had on the original!
Get to the choppah and come with me if you want to live and I’ll be back and stuff!
Posted on September 6, 2012
*Start*
I’m going to a friend’s wedding this weekend, so I have to put the blog on hold for a few days. I should be right back at it on Tuesday of next week, however.
Be sure to turn off your monitor to avoid having this image burned into it.
Posted on September 6, 2012
My Top 100: #91 – Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune
2007 – PlayStation 3 (Naughty Dog)
It took a while for the PlayStation 3 to really find its legs after it was released. Sony’s show at E3 in 2006 was unforgettable, albeit for all the wrong reasons, and whatever games they had worth remembering were buried under all the other terrible presentations. Crash Bandicoot and Jak & Daxter creators Naughty Dog had an ace up their sleeve, and though Killzone 2 was shaping up to be the console’s first exclusive to rock the gaming world, it was their trailer for a so-far untitled game that really got people buzzing…
*The trailer above was shown somewhere between “Riiiiiiiiidge Racerrrrr!!” and “$599 US Dollars!” Interesting to see now, how much better the game actually looked by the time it was released.*
Last Christmas, I had been looking to try a few really popular games, like Assassin’s Creed and Batman: Arkham Asylum, to see what the fuss was all about. As part of a combo pack with a PS3 controller, I snagged Uncharted: Drake’s Deception and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. I had heard that playing them was akin to playing an interactive movie, so that had me convinced I should check ’em out.
The game is part Tomb Raider and part Max Payne (minus the bullet-time), with some obvious homages to Indiana Jones thrown in for good measure. Nathan Drake is a likeable everyman who seems to have amazing strength in his fingertips – most of the game has him hanging and jumping from one narrow cliff to another, with only the seemingly limitless strength at the end of his digits to depend on. As improbable as it all seems, it makes for some intense platforming, to say the least.
The shooting action has you finding cover most of the time, since running out into the middle of a firestorm can get you all good and dead pretty quickly. Any situation Nate gets himself into can usually be approached in a variety of ways, which definitely helps to keep the game from getting too monotonous.
So, yeah; great cinematic presentation, great humour, fun story and intense action. One of the best games in the last five years, no question!
Leaping from tiny ledge to tiny ledge… highly unlikely, but fun as hell.
Posted on September 5, 2012
My Top 100: #92 – DRIV3R
2004 – Xbox-PS2-PC (Reflections Interactive)
Driver 3 (not “Driv-three-Arrr”) is the first game on this countdown that I feel might leave some people scratching their heads.
When it was released for PC and PlayStation, the first Driver game had you pretty much just driving from point A to point B, running errands for characters you never really connected with (or even saw on screen, for that matter), just avoiding cops or other cars that were out to hinder your progress. The sequel added on-foot missions, and though it was pretty ambitious, the graphics and controls were a far cry from Grand Theft Auto III (which was released less than a year later).
By the time DRIV3R rolled around, GTA3 and Vice City had been around a while. They were the gold standard, and every free-roaming action game that came after them had pretty high expectations. The Driver franchise did pretty well on its first two attempts, so it was understandable that there was a lot of hype surrounding the third game.
From the get-go, critics trashed it. Some claimed the on-foot missions were terrible, and the lack of melee weapons was inexcusable. The game was blamed for having “rubberband AI”, which meant that no matter how well you thought you were getting away from someone, the code would allow them to catch right back up.
GameSpot gave it a 3.8, IGN gave it a 5.4, and EGM gave it a 5.9… so what could I have possibly enjoyed enough about it to include the game on my list?
To begin with, I found the hand-to-hand combat in GTA games absolutely terrible, so I certainly didn’t miss it not being in DRIV3R. The graphics had a surprising amount of polish to them, and the music gave the game a pretty good Hollywood vibe to it. Miami feels like a grittier version of Vice City, Istanbul’s narrow streets are complimented by a cool middle-eastern soundtrack, and Nice looks… well, nice. (Couldn’t resist.)
If you like to nitpick about everything that’s wrong about games, then don’t play this. The driving physics were meant to be realistic, if only to counter the slightly arcade feel that Rockstar went with for GTA. Some people liked it, a lot of people hated it, but I really enjoyed it.
Thumbs up, brah.
To top it all off, Tanner can swim! Take that Claude and Tommy!
(It kinda looks like he’s drowning here, but trust me – he’s swimming.)