Messages

1

Classic Video Games / Re: Resident Evil vs Silent Hill vs Luigis Mansion vs TLOU (you can only keep one)

« on: November 20, 2024, 12:21:37 am »

Resident Evil, no question. I'm not a fan of all the games in the series, but I'd say 80% of them I either really enjoy or I absolutely love them.

I enjoy Silent Hill, at least the ones I've played, but to my understanding, the series is essentially the first three are great, 4 is good depending on who you ask, and then the rest range from wildly mediocre to complete trash. Giving up Silent Hill 2 would absolutely pain me though, just saying.

It wouldn't be controversial to share your thoughts about Silent Hill but toward Resident Evil instead. From what I've seen, RE, RE2, RE3, REC:V, RE0, and RE7 are the only standout entries in a franchise with thirty entries. As far as Silent Hill stands, I actually enjoyed Origins for what it is, though it retreads common ground. I'm looking forward to playing Shattered Memories—which actually earned positive reviews—as the next entry for me to play, too.

But people obviously have their own preferences. Hopefully the rumor going around about RE9 releasing soon is true and meets expectations.

I definitely feel like the majority of RE games I've played rank above average to some of the best games I've ever played. The only RE games I've played that ranged from meh to absolute crap are 5, the Outbreak games, Dead Aim, and Survivor. I've never played supposed stinkers like Operation Raccoon City, so I can't say on that one, but I have a hard time thinking of any outside that, that are considered bad by most people. I know a lot of people hate 6, and when I went into playing it for the first time earlier this year I thought I'd feel the same, but I actually found it to be a pretty good game overall. Certainly no masterpiece, but definitely far better than the internet led me to believe for the last decade.

2

Classic Video Games / Re: Resident Evil vs Silent Hill vs Luigis Mansion vs TLOU (you can only keep one)

« on: November 17, 2024, 10:12:07 pm »

Resident Evil, no question. I'm not a fan of all the games in the series, but I'd say 80% of them I either really enjoy or I absolutely love them.


I enjoy Silent Hill, at least the ones I've played, but to my understanding, the series is essentially the first three are great, 4 is good depending on who you ask, and then the rest range from wildly mediocre to complete trash. Giving up Silent Hill 2 would absolutely pain me though, just saying.


TLOU is an amazing game, and while it has some fairly annoying narrative issues, I am actually one of the people that liked TLOU2. However, neither the first game with how well made it is, or the best parts of Part 2 can hold a candle to RE for me.


I've never played a Luigi's Mansion game so I can't really judge them. However, I will say I'm still somewhat bitter that Luigi's Mansion was Nintendo's follow up to Super Mario 64, and not a game that felt like more of a direct sequel. I have a hard time saying Sunshine is a sequel, even though it technically is. I really don't think a proper successor happened with Super Mario 64 until Super Mario Galaxy.

3

General / Re: Your Top 5 Video Game Sound Tracks

« on: November 11, 2024, 10:41:38 pm »

oh man, this is going to be tough! I'm going to have to do a top 10.


1. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong Quest
2. Virtua Fighter
3. Sonic the Hedgehog 3
4. Super Street Fighter 2
5. Silent Hill 2
6. Final Fantasy X
7. Nights into Dreams
8. Sin and Punishment
9. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
10. Super Mario 64


Honorable Mentions

Virtua Fighter 2
Pilotwings 64
Battle Garegga
Donkey Kong Country
Shenmue
Daytona USA
Doom (2016)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Zone of the Enders
Castlevania Symphony of the Night

4

General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!

« on: November 10, 2024, 10:07:24 pm »

48. Extreme G (N64)

I don't like to throw around the term "hidden gem" very often because of how overused and cliche its become when it comes to talking about retro games. However, I feel like Extreme G is a textbook hidden gem for the most part. While the game did get several sequels, meaning it at least sold well enough to warrant these, it seems to get left out when discussing the best racing games not just on the N64, but of that entire generation of gaming. I haven't played Extreme G in a long, long time. However, I go way back with this game, having received it for Xmas in 1997. I thoroughly enjoyed unlocking all the stages and vehicles, as well as playing some of the other modes beyond just the race mode. However, it's been at least 25-years since I last played Extreme G so I was a bit worried I'd find the game not a interesting or fun as I once did. Luckily that was not the case.


Extreme G is a very impressive game in that it shows off very cool, dynamic visuals all while maintaining a pretty high, consistent frame rate. There are so many N64 games that shit the bed when it comes to FPS, especially when there's a lot more action going on. With how chaotic this game can become and also how fast the obstacles and turns ahead come at you, you'd think this game would frequently stutter, but it holds its own almost through every stage, which there are quite a few. All of the stages have this awesome futuristic look to them which perfectly nails the aesthetic the game is going for. As for as track design, some are far better than others, but overall they're all pretty good. While racing through each stage, you'll be able to pick up power ups to use against your opponents similar to Mario Kart, and also regenerate your shields and laser gun you can use when you don't have a picked up weapon equipped. There are also a lot of branching paths in each stage which make them fresh and dynamic as you race through each one. I'm just blown away by how enjoyable and good this game still is. It's far from perfect, but for what it is, it's a very enjoyable late 90s racing game experience and one I'd highly recommend to someone looking for something in the genre a bit more fun and different. (11/10/24) [37/50]

5

General / Re: VGC's Anonymous/"General" Topic:

« on: November 09, 2024, 11:42:20 am »

Been cruising around the site a lot for the last couple of days.
Thank y’all for keeping it going.

I necrothreaded a bunch of old posts I'd never commented on before a couple months ago in a attempt to stir up some conversation. This site is feeling more and more lonely with each passing year...

6

General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!

« on: November 08, 2024, 10:22:38 pm »

47. Dr. Mario 64 (N64)

Aside from a handful of isolated times growing up, I never played Dr. Mario on the NES for the most part, but when I did, I found myself a pretty big fan of it. Really, the most time I've spent with this game was actually its N64 port. Yes, I consider Dr. Mario 64 more or less a remade port of the priginal since it is essentially the same game with a few extra modes and better graphics. That isn't saying much since this game is played entirely in 2D like the original. For this reason, visually the game does nothing to impress fore the most part. Likewise, its OST is fairly catchy, but in my opinion, nothing special. The real bread and butter of this game is its gameplay, which can become pretty addicting, albeit fairly easy. I intended to play this game just until my wife was finished making dinner, but after I took a break to eat, I just wanted to go back and play some more. I played for probably 4 hours total until I began to go cross eyed while playing. This is definitely one of the more fun puzzle games on the N64. (11/8/24) [34/50]

7

General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!

« on: November 08, 2024, 12:09:14 pm »

46. Perfect Dark (N64)

It's funny how different your opinion on specific games can change over several decades. It's always nice when that opinion approves over when you initially played a game 10 or 20 years ago, however it can go the other way too. In the case of Perfect Dark on the N64, it's unfortunately the latter for me. I used to adore Perfect Dark growing up; I'd spend hours on the campaign, getting three stars on every weapon in the shooting range, and setting up multiplayer bot matches. It was a blast. However, over the years, I've come more and more to prefer Goldeneye 007 when it comes to Rare's iconic FPS games on the N64. I still enjoy Perfect Dark, just not as much as I used to. There's nothing necessarily wrong with Perfect Dark, in fact, it's superior to Goldeneye in many ways. However, the places where Goldeneye excels over Perfect Dark, mainly its OST, stage design, and story are enough to make me like that game a fair amount more. I still love the scifi setting of Perfect Dark, however I just don't find its somewhat shlocky characters and writing to be as appealing. As mentioned, the stage design isn't as good in Perfect Dark overall. Some stages, particularly some of the earlier stages are definitely on par with Goldeneye, however the stages start to get more and more annoying, poorly laid out, and just frustrating overall. Again, I don't dislike Perfect Dark, it just makes me want to play Goldeneye instead when I play it these days. It definitely makes me feel a bit sad how I don't adore this game like I used to, but for what it's worth, I actually found myself enjoying it more this time around than the last time I tried playing it about 5 years ago or so. Maybe someday, it'll flip again and be my favorite Rare FPS, who knows lol. (11/8/24) (35/50]

8

General / Re: Past Collections

« on: November 01, 2024, 10:48:21 pm »

There haven't been many instances where I sold a game and felt the desire to go back and repurchase it. Nearly all the games I've sold out of my personal collection have either fallen into the category of 1) rare, mediocre game that I was proud to add to my collection, but would likely never play, 2) Game I knew little about other than people online said it was fun or maybe it just had an interesting cover (lots of JRPGs included in this category), or 3) a game I knew about and liked, but it was a double that I held onto because it was a different port or release variant. As you can probably guess, none of these games made me yearn to add them back into my collection. There have been a few exceptions to this, however, mostly games that fell into category 2 that I thought I wouldn't miss, but ended up really wanting back. Einhander, Metal Gear Solid, and Timesplitters were all examples of this. But in general, if I sold a game, there's a good chance I'll never try and buy it again down the road.


As for re-releases and compilations, I'm generally a big fan of these as long as the games remain faithful to the original other than obvious quality of life improvements. I appreciate the accessibility and convenience of these releases, and in some cases I'll end up selling the originals if I own them. I mostly game on modern hardware, even if that's using that modern hardware to play 30 year old games. It's a lot less likely I'm going to hook up my Genesis or NES to play a game when I can just throw in a compilation and play the game on my PS4 or Switch.

9

Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

« on: October 13, 2024, 09:56:13 pm »

Growing up, my introduction to a lot of beloved movie series started with me watching one of the sequels rather than the first movie in the series. Aliens, Back to the Future 3, and Indiana Jones and the Last Cruisade are just a few examples, but one other was Ghostbusters 2. I LOVED GB2 growing up and used to watch it, rewind it, and then watch it immediately again. I've probably seen Ghostbusters 2 10x more than I have the first movie which is generally considered the superior film. I don't remember when I watched the first GB movie, but it was at least a few years after I'd seen GB2 a dozen times at least. I rewatched GB2 this evening and I think I still prefer it to GB1. A lot of that is sentimental reasons, but some of it is I just find the plot and villain cooler. I also think it's funnier. Anyways, love GB2 and glad I got around to rewatching it leading up to Halloween.

10

General / Re: October 2024 - Recently Added to Collection/Recently Purchased

« on: October 11, 2024, 10:23:21 pm »

picked up Metaphor and Silent Hill 2 this week. Too bad I'll likely not be playing either until November.

11

Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

« on: October 03, 2024, 10:12:36 pm »

Despite being super busy right now with cramming as much study time as I can for another tech cert test I'm taking on November 1st, I wasn't about to let the month of October slip by without getting into the season of Halloween. Of course, one of the best ways of doing this, at least for me, is watching horror movies. I decided to rewatch the original Alien movies which are all a huge part of my experience growing up. Unlike Star Wars, a terrible AvP movie and the absolute piece of trash Alien Covenant weren't enough to ruin this franchise for me. But after watching all four movies again I'm left with a few thoughts and feelings that I feel differ from how I used to feel about these movies overall.


Alien: I know this will be blasphemy to many, but this is still my least favorite of the original four Alien movies. I get why it is so loved, but it never resonated with me the way it does so many others. I find it to be a tad slow and also dated, especially compared to the other 3 movies which can mostly be enjoyed just as much today as they could back when they came out. I will say, however, that this movie does grow on me a little more each time I watch it and this last time was no exception.


Aliens: For years I debated whether I liked Aliens or Alien 3 more. I thing at different times of my life I liked one slightly more than the other, but now I absolutely love Aliens more than either of its sequels. This movie just never ever gets old. The effects are still great, almost nothing about this movie feels dated, and it's just so well done from start to finish. The part with the Alien queen at the end still gives me goosebumps, and Riply is still the perfect example of a strong female character done right.


Alien 3: While I'm still one of the few people that really likes Alien 3, I can definitely see why many hate it, especially as a follow up to aliens. It's definitely a very different kind of movie, but most of all, watching it immediately after Aliens kinda pissed me off like it did so many others. Killing off both Newt and Hicks was a bold, and probably ill advised move on the writer's part, especially after all they'd been through canonically just days or weeks prior in Aliens. It just feel like a giant fu to the fans of that movie. But other than that, I still love Alien 3's bleak, somber setting, as well as how it contrasts heavily with Alien by having no guns or real weapons to take on the single alien in the movie. The CG does feel a tad dated at times, but overall I still really like this one.


Alien Resurrection: I take back what I said earlier; Alien Resurrection was very, very briefly my favorite Alien movie back when it first came out in 1997. I went to see it with a neighbor friend and his parents, and we were both blown away by this movie beyond what either of us imagined. However, the allure quickly faded and has continued to fade as time goes by. I definitely don't dislike Resurrection, but I do recognize its many flaws and issues, most notable how they pretty much ruined Ripley's character by making her a weird, autistic alien hybrid woman who acts nothing like she did in either of the previous three movies. I get why this is, and I feel like the writing does a decent enough job explaining it, but it's still something that bugs me. I do really enjoy the special effects, the cool alien scenes, and the finale of this movie, but it just doesn't do it for me the same way it did when I was 10. I imagine that someday I will likely consider this to be my least favorite of the Alien Quadrilogy, but that day had not arrived yet.

12

General / Re: October 2024 - Recently Added to Collection/Recently Purchased

« on: October 01, 2024, 10:21:26 pm »

Guess I'll be the one to open the thread for the new month

And immediately gotta share something new I'm extremely happy with:



A proper metal Dance Dance Revolution-style game pad. And the craziest part: I got it used for 20 bucks. 20 bucks. The only problem was that I didn't have a control box with it, but thankfully a friend of mine who's skilled at programming was able to make one. And yes: the pad works!! It took me dragging this big heavy metal slab literally halfway across the Netherlands and back on trains and buses over the course of a whole weekend, and my back really hurts now, but who cares. IT WORKS!!

I'm not even sure what model this exactly is yet. I can't find any labeling on it and it wasn't listed as anything specific. But it looks extremely similar to the official Dance Dance Revolution pads, which made a friend of mine think it may actually be official, which would be insane if that's the case. But honestly, I don't really care. I'm just so glad it works! Really sick to own this. Gonna have a ton of fun playing Stepmania on this (until like 7 or maybe 8 PM at the absolute latest though. I don't want to get into a fight with my downstairs neighbours).

This is the only way to play DDR outside an arcade. Those flimsy dance pads that came with the game suck and almost make it unplayable. Also, good luck finding one that still works after all these years.

13

General / Re: Old Youtube gaming channels/videos nostalgia thread

« on: September 28, 2024, 10:47:07 pm »

I liked the raw feel better (that’s what she said)

I miss this so much.

14

General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2024!!!!!

« on: September 28, 2024, 04:39:43 pm »

45. Tekken 8 (PS5)

I've wanted to play Tekken 8 since it came out several months ago, but thanks to a very thoughtful anniversary present from my wife, I can now play it and see if it's as good as it looks. I'm very happy to say that it is just as good as it looks, if not a little better than that. Tekken 8 shines in the department you'd most want it to, and that's its very tight, very well crafted gameplay. Everything is fairly easy and accessible in terms of controls and being able to execute some of the games more technical moves, however at the same time you know you're only scratching the surface when pulling off wicked combos and other special moves. The rage gauge makes its return from the previous game, but also has a heat gage which is sort of a less powerful rage gauge that allows you to punish your opponent when used, and also grants you special moves you can only use while it's active. Balancing of characters seems pretty good, with no single character seeming way better than the others, although like all fighting games, i'm sure there are several competitive favorites. But at least from my casual, ammetuer perspective, everything felt very well crafted by the devs and it all translates into one of the best gameplay experiences of any Tekken game I've ever played. The presentation is also very good, although it's far from being my favorite Tekken game from a visuals or aesthetics standpoint. There are some unique stage destruction effects, as well as secret areas that are only unlocked by slamming your opponent against the ground or a specific wall to unlock them. The OST is very Tekkeny, with some very high energy techno tracks, but a few others too that provide a nice change. Like the visuals, it's not my favorite Tekken from an OST perspective, but it's definitely an above average audio experience overall. If I was ranking Tekken 8 compared to all the other Tekken games, I'd place it only behind the original Tag Tournament as well as 5. Other than that, it's the best modern Tekken I've played, mostly due to how amazing its gameplay is. (9/28/24) [39/50]

15

Classic Video Games / Re: The Best Retro Game Music - 8bit and above

« on: September 28, 2024, 11:17:05 am »

Oh man! There are so many!


I am a HUGE fan of video game music. In fact, I have a designated playlist on my phone of about 1500 video game songs that I regularly listen to while driving, working, studying, or whatever. These are the ones that have the best music overall in my book.


Sin and Punishment (N64)
Sonic 3 and Knuckles (Genesis)
FInal Fantasy X (PS2)
Zone of the Enders (PS2)
Shenmue 2 (Dreamcast)
Sonic R (Saturn)
Nights into Dreams (Saturn)
Super Mario 64 (N64)
The Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time (N64)
Super Street Fighter 2 (Arcade)
Virtua Fighter (Arcade)
Virtua Fighter 2 (Arcade)
Daytona USA (Arcade)
Silent Hill 2 (PS2)
Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
Donkey Kong Country 2 (SNES)
Battle Garegga (Arcade)