Zombie Highway for the iPhone
There is a full review of this game up on TouchArcade, so I’ll let you go there for more information about it and what they think. Something that, as of this writing I haven’t personally read. Not that I don’t value and respect their opinion … I could just care less about game reviews personally. I only care about what *I* think of a game.
But with my recently obtaining an Android Eris cell phone, I use it for all my MP3 playing needs since I’ve always got the phone on me anyway, so my little second generation iPod Touch is used exclusively for gaming now. And this is one of the games that kind of caught my eye.
Anyone remember the excellent film Zombie Land? This game, judging from the video anyway, kind of feels like that to me. That … and a little bit of 2004’s Dawn of the Dead and 28 Days Later mixed in. You’re just driving down this empty stretch of road (that doesn’t seem to have any turns on it) avoiding the wrecked vehicles. But occasionally, there are zombies off to the side that jump onto the side of your SUV and you have to either knock them off or shoot them off.
Now, just judging from the video, I’m wondering about the replayability. And the graphics don’t look all that great, but these are just initial impressions having not played it yet. At only $0.99, I may give it a go one of these days.
Do you ever wonder what you may have missed in the previous generation of consoles?
I always wonder that … so I’ve been on a Playstation 2 kick lately. It WOULD be the Xbox … except mine isn’t so much an Xbox anymore so much as it is an emulation/homebrew machine. And add on to the fact that damn DVD tray won’t open anymore for some reason. Yeah yeah, I know that’s easily fixed but I’m just too lazy to do it. The damn thing is basically an underpowered PC in a big, ugly, heavy black box anyway. And the Gamecube … honestly those games are a bit harder to get than PS2 games in my area, so I’m also going to leave that out. I’m just speaking me personally here, but you can say the same thing about any of the previous generation systems really. Just with the Gamecube being a somewhat smaller one because not everything came out for that for some reason.
Episode 2 of the Wasted Seconds podcast is up.
I figure I’ll put a post regarding it up on here every other show (because they don’t always fall into episodes). And I may eventually permanently migrate it over here. I don’t really know yet, because the podcast is it’s own beast. I will say this, beware : the people who have talked to me either in person or at least in chat (or if you follow my Twitter at all) know that I’m an extremely raunchy person. Therefore, the podcast is definitely explicit. So be mindful of where you listen to it. But you can check out episode 2 “You ignored me for THAT?” as well as the other two episodes and a Red Dead Redemption spoilercast for those of you who have either beaten the game or are comfortable with spoilers at the Wasted Seconds Podcast site. Right now it’s me, Josh Campos and Justin Smith … and hopefully one of these days we’ll get an episode going where EVERYONE is on at the same time.
And for those brave souls who want to be on it as well, just get ahold of me. I’m sure we can work something out. Unfortunately, there is no SET recording time, so no promises there. :)
OverKill for DOS
If I remember correctly, this was the game that caused me to go out and get a controller for the computer … and in 1992 there was only one real choice : the Gravis PC Gamepad. I think I still have one of those around somewhere. Though I haven’t any idea if it works. But regardless, this is one of those games that I only had the shareware version of when I was younger. Hell, I was running it on a computer that didn’t even have a sound card. So I never got to listen to the kickass music this game was pumping out till MUCH later. Though, it did use the PC speaker for the shots and sound effects (which actually sound pretty decent) so at least I got part of the experience, even though it was limited to “pew pew pew” and a few garbled sounds that vaguely sound like explosions. I remember screwing on that little joystick attachment to the Gravis Pad and playing with that after I decided the directional pad wasn’t as good as it could be for a game like this.
Bargain Bin games you should get : Phantasmagoria
I had always heard about this game ... even today. Recently it tried to get inducted into Retro Gaming Roundup's top 10 horror games ... but the other hosts (having never played it before) didn't really see it and it, unfortunately, didn't get in. The game came out for DOS IN 1995 on seven cds. Later ported to Windows and the Macintosh ... and a console but only in Japan I think. And it's a horror game, obviously.
Back when this came out, I didn't have a PC that was anywhere near good enough to run the game, and with all the negative press it was getting at the time regarding it's rather graphic content I don't know how well that would have went over at home ... despite the fact I was playing games like Mortal Kombat at the time. Go figure.
The entire game uses real actors standing in front of a bluescreen where the designers could then put in whatever type of backgrounds they wanted. And no, this isn't a full motion video game, this is quite a bit more like an interactive movie than that. It's a point and click adventure game that plays very similarly to games like Space Quest, King's Quest, Police Quest ... you get the idea if you've played these before. If you haven't then what the hell is wrong with you.
I'd highly suggest trying this one out, it's got the gory deaths, a rape scene (that would actually seem a bit tame by today's standards actually) though I will say it starts off rather slowly to show a feeling of just normalness. By day 2 shit really starts to hit the fan and get interesting.
It's definitely not the prettiest game out there by today's standards. But it's still definitely worth check out and can be had over at Good Old Games for $9.99.
Not a good day for retro gamers on Xbox Live
The following games have been removed from the Xbox Live Arcade service ...
- Cyberball 2072
- Defender
- Gauntlet
- Joust
- Paperboy
- Robotron 2084
- Root Beer Tapper
- Smash TV
- Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
Now I can't say that I'm all that heartbroken about UMK3 just because that game is utter crap ... MK2 all the way ... but the others. It's just heartbreaking.
Now, if you've already downloaded the games, and you're worried that if you get a new hard drive you can't get them again, no big deal. Just hit your guide button, go to the settings tab, account management and go to your download history you CAN get them again. And (though I haven't tried it personally) if you downloaded the trial you MAY be able to buy them again. Which means I STILL may be able to get Joust. :)
But still. Sad day for retro gamers.
Quit bitching about having a netbook with no games to play.
Netbooks are notorious for not being very good gaming platforms, which is 110% true. Try running something like Left 4 Dead on an Intel GMA powered netbook, it’s rather funny seeing it try so hard and ultimately fail. Miserably. But just because it can’t run stuff like Left 4 Dead 2, or for those of you who play it (which, unfortunately there ARE many of you) Modern Warfare 2 doesn’t mean you can’t game on it. So occasionally I’ll be picking examples that you can get off of Steam that will happily run on these picky little bastards. Stock. I don’t have the RAM upgrade in mine because I’m too lazy to take the thing apart and get it in there, so this is stuff that will run on a stock Acer Aspire One netbook with a 160GB hard drive and 1GB of RAM running Windows XP Home. If you’re running Windows Vista … for one why the hell would you touch that with a 10 foot pole … or Windows 7, can’t help you that much. Anywhere, here we go with the first one. And by the way, these aren’t specifically geared toward netbooks, ANY kind of computer (in some cases almost literally) are good for these because, mostly, they’re just great games.