Retro Diary #2 – MTV Sports Pure Ride & Ford Truck Simulator [PS1]

So I’m back from R-cade to give you 2 more games to give thoughts on! This time, I played 2 PS1 games. One snowboarding and one about trucks racing.

To get it out of the way: MTV Sports Pure Ride was just garbage. It didn’t control very well at all, it was awkward to pull off any tricks and you just looped through the same 3 or 4 tracks, and there was no indication of what to do or that I was making any progress.

The game has stunt levels, much like The Italian Job, but it’s broken as all heck. The second challenge required you to grind a rail. Simple, right? Yeah… if it worked.

First off, if you get off the slope without turning, it suddenly veers slightly to the left, making you miss the rail, so you need to so dome weird turns to get on the rail.

Even when you’re absolutely certain that you got it, it just slid off, and you fail the challenge.

I tried to do this for a good 5 minutes, and never got it. And this was the second challenge!

So I decided “Fuck this!” and played something else. Not reccomended!

I picked Ford Truck Mania, also for the PS1. Released in 2003, it was one of the final games for the console.

I expected a game this late would be lazily done and lacking on content.

It’s kind of lacking in content, but surprisingly, it was well made.

The game has some impressive physics for a PS1 game, and nice environments. Though it has some weird LOD moments, like sharp corners end up not being so sharp when you get closer to it.

The only issue I have with the game is that there aren’t many courses, and even fewer available from the get go, but overall, it’s not to bad. I’d say try this before buying.

That’s all I have for this week, until next week, A’m oot!

Is the PS1 overated?

In short: I think it is. For those who just wanted to know that, you can now piss off.

For those who want to know what brought me to that conclusion, I suppose I can give you a backstory.

I used to have a PS1 back in the day, and I loved it. There were so many great games for it. The 3D aspect was mindblowing coming from the Mega Drive!

When I got into retro gaming, I naturally went back to the PS1. Those wobbly textures have a charm to them that you can’t recreate with modern games!

So I decided to expland into other retro consoles of that generation, and I got a Saturn, then an N64, then a Dreamcast.

Over time, I found myself playing those way more, and my PS1 was just collecting dust.

It seems I’m not alone. People my age seem to rave on about those consoles more than the PS1. Look at any meme about the 90s, and 9 times out of 10, you’ll see a reference to the N64 there.

Dreamcast obviously has it’s huge fanbase, and the Saturn has a dedicated one, too.

But the PS1 seems completely forgotten. Sure, you have some guys, such as myself, recalling memories of it, but generally, people seemed to have just moved on and don’t pay any attention to it. At least this is from my experience.

This is all despite the fact the PS1 sold about twice as many consoles as the other 3 combined.

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it? From playing all of the consoles, almost on a regular basis, I can give you my reason for doing this myself.

The PS1 just feels… bland. Lifeless. Almost corporate.

The library seems quanity over quality. Absolutely it has it’s classics, but a big percentage of those weren’t even exclusive, and most of the time, in my opinion, the PS1 version wasn’t even the best.

Wipeout is also available on Saturn and PC.

Wipeout 2097/XL is also available on Saturn and PC.

Croc is also available on Saturn and PC.

Destruction Derby, you guessed it, also on Saturn and PC.

Destruction Derby 2 was also on PC, and a Saturn port was in the works, but cancelled.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater was also on N64 and Dreamcast.

Pro Skater 2 was also on N64, Dreamcast, and PC. (There was also 2X on Xbox, but that never got released here)

Final Fantasy VII was also on PC.

Metal Gear Solid was also on PC.

Bugs Bunny Lost in Time and Sheep, Dog n’ Wolf were also on PC.

See where I’m getting at?

Don’t get me wrong, the PS1 has some absolute classics to call it’s own, such as the Crash Bandicoot games, the Spyro trilogy, Klonoa, Wip3out and Ape Escape. I’m not holding anything against those, I love those games! It also has Bubsy 3D… I guess?

But outside of those, the PS1 feels like it hasn’t got anything truly outstanding to offer.

I also respect that the same could be said for the Sega Saturn, many of it’s games were also on PC, but at least those Saturn games had multiplayer that was harder to achieve on PC, so there was a reason to own the games on Saturn, if you had one. Most of the PS1 games listed were singleplayer only.

The other consoles felt like they had personality to them, like you go to one of them to play a specific type of game.

Whereas the PS1 feels like it’s just a generic for everyone console, it lacks such personality.

I’m not knocking the PS1 at all, mind you, I still think it’s a great console, just overshadowed by almost every other console that generation.

So what do you think? Feel free to

 

Retro Diary #82

On Monday, I played some matches of WWE 2K18 on the PS4 with my brother, we played 3 8-man matches, all of which he won, then we played 2 one-on-one matches, both of which I won!

---

On Tuesday, we played WWE 2K18 again, this time with another brother, too! We played 3 tripple threat elimination matches, all of which I was eliminated first, then we played a handicap match, me and my youngest brother versus he 1st brother, that ended in a draw, and the youngest brother left after that. Then we played 2 6-man ladder matches, both of which I also lost.

---

On Wednesday, I met up with a high-school friend at MEGAByted, and I played Supermn 64, and rage quit out of frustration, and then I played Bubsy 3D for the PS1, and got bored of that after 2 levels, but I saved the password for next time…

Then I played some pinball games. I’ve really been getting into pinball recently, it’s so much fun! And Trippy!

I then played the arcade game there (forget the title), with an old pound coin I had! So it was essentially a free game!

After that, we went home.

---

 

Retro Diary #77

So on Thursday, it was my birthday, and I planned to go with some friends to the cinema to see Cars 3. Only one friend turned up, I’m not going to jump to conclusions as to why the others showed up.

Anyway, we met up,We watched someone play Super Mario 3D world at MEGABytes, and then we went and saw the film. I enjoyed it, you can see my thoughts on the film in this article.

---

On Friday, I went to the MEGABytes café, and played some PS1 games. The first was No Onbe can stop Mr. Domino, it was a fairly fun game, although it got really frustrating a couple of levels in.

I then played some Dead or Alive 1. I’ve never played the first game before, and it’s a typical 90s fighter from the time. There’s really not much to say here other than outside the main area are full of explosives, seemingly, if a player falls in this area, the ground blows up, propelling them into the air.

This was also before they started using the gimmick of bouncing tits, so the game was just bland in general. Fun, yeah, but bland, in my opinion.

Afterwards, I visited GAME at St. Enochs, and found that they have eliminated their PC stock, even their digital code cards are gone minus some Sims 4 ones… it’s happening… =(

---

On Saturday, I finally got around to playing Watch Dogs 2… and I’m addicted! I’ve already lost several hours because the game!

Gameplay-wise, it feels like Watch Dogs 1, but with better car physics, but seeing as I loved the first game, that’s a good thing!

 

Retro Diary #76 – Back Home!

I’m back!

On Sunday, I met up with an old friend at a retro gaming cafe, where I played Bugs Bunny: Lost in Time on the PS1 for a few hours.

It’s actually a really good game. It fits the theme of the show perfectly, it has some great platforming elements to it! The only major flaw I found was that the controls can be very frustrating! The right analog stick does nothing. You have to use the L2 and R2 buttons to look around. Also, R1 is the action button…

Other than that, it’s a very good game, and I definitely see myself getting it when I can afford it!

After that, me and this friend went to get dinner where we talked about all sorts of things game related!

After that, we went home.

---

On Monday, I was talking to a friend online (for a good few hours, I might add!), and we takes about the Tony Hawk games for a bit (because she saw Underground 2 on PS2 for sale at a shop and was thinking of getting it), and how she played one of the games years ago, but can’t remember which, I helper her identify that it was Project 8.

While chatting to her, I found my old PS2 keyring, which broke off ages ago!

---

On Tuesday, another friend called me for a little chat, and asked how many PC games I had (I guess just to create conversation), and since I’ve lost count, I decided to just take some photos of my collection and sent them to him instead!

I’ve decided to share them here as well!

---

Retro Diary #70

Last Sunday, I got Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 (mostly) working on my PC, and I got it working using the Cumulative patch, which makes the gtame widescreen, unloicks the framerate, and makes other improvements.

….and wow! Playing the game at 60+ frames per second makes a huge difference! It’s much more fun and fluid now! It’s going to be hard to go back to the console versions now…

Retro Diary – 02/07/16

It’s been a long time since I’ve done one of these, eh? (2 years, in fact!) Well, I’ve decided to bring this series back, but this time, I’m going to do them whenever I like, and on days where anything of interest happened in terms of retro gaming in my life, such as today!

I was at MEGABytes today, which is a retro gaming cafe that opened up in Glasgow a year or so back, and if you love retro games, you’ll love this place!

Anyway, I was there today with a couple of friends, and we were chatting for a bit, while one of the people in our group was playing Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed (I know, not a retro game, but the cafe let them play it on their 360, so…), and I was arguing with a friend (not in a fighting way, though, don’t worry) because we had contrasting opinions on the game, my friend thought it was a great game and the best in the series, but I disagreed, it was a massive disappointment in my opinion, and that the first game was much better!

We then talked about other Sonic game and how since Heroes, with the exception of (part of) Unleashed, Colors and Generations, every Sonic game has been garbage…

Rant: Checkpoints in Video Games

It’s that time of the month again, where I need to get something off of my (mostly) hairless chest (better there than my head), and this time I am going to be ranting about games that use checkpoint, and use them sparingly, and especially those who defend it over quicksaves/quickloads.

I will be mostly talking about Shooters, where this problem is the most affected, genres like platformers and sidescrollers don’t seem to be as badly affected by this problem.

I have played many games, and a lot of them are shockingly PC games, that use checkpoints, and if that wasn’t bad enough, they are few and too far between. It’s p*ssing me off! These games are really frustrating, hair-tearingly merciless! I’ve played many games that would’ve been otherwise fantastic, ruined by sparse checkpoints, I can maybe understand (older) consoles games using checkpoint, but many PC games nowadays do this as well!

Retro Arrivals: Sony Pocketstation

I got a Pocketstation… so yeah.

“What’s a Pocketstation?” I hear you ask. Well, long story short, it’s Sony’s take on the Dreamcast’s VMU for the PS1.

Retro Diary – 10/02/2014 – All about the PS2!

Dear Diary,

Monday 3rd February 2014
I was at college, during break in the morning, my lecturer noticed my ZX Spectrum bag, and we started talking about the ZX Spectrum, he showed my his ZX Spectrum Emulator on his Iphone, and even showed me some games he bought for that emulator, and he showed me a game on it, I believe it was called “Attic Attack” or something. He then showed me a HTML5 browser emulator, and I thought that was awesome! Since then, during breaks, when I had done all I can with my games, I opened the emulator, and played some Spectrum games, I’ve been playing Manic Miner and Batter!