(Retro) What have you been playing this week?

[fallenangle]

PC Broken Sword 2: The Smoking Mirror. Liked the first half but the second half is reminding me why I ended up hating the original game on first play through. Story well told as before, good script, presentation and voice acting but although there are exceptions the puzzles are becoming increasingly pedantic and often more than a bit silly or down right obscure. I've even experienced what I believe is a significant glitch in the game too.

[Kit]

Tony Hawks 2 on the GBA. The ending credits:

?you?re a real pro, you should make games!?

Why ty Tony Hawks team.

[Jazzem]

Playing the excellent Pier Solar, quite surprised by how difficult it is but I am enjoying it. Story has been a little bit formulaic, but the dialogue's charming enough to keep it going

[Decider-VT]

Around 17 hours into my first playthrough of Final Fantasy VII and it's really much larger than I'd expected it to be, although it has bags of charm and a fairly engaging story so far. Luckily I've managed to steer clear of most of the plot over the years, so it's mostly new to me. Great to finally play it after years of reading about it in magazines.

[nakamura]

Nice to see a new player really enjoying FFVII. It is a top game and despite being a tad overblown by fans, is one I have enjoyed three times.

Playing tons of Super Street Fighter II and Metroid Zero Mission.
Zero Mission is very good but I do prefer Fusion. I think Fusion has a better atmosphere overall and more variety in design.

[speedlolita]

Been playing Heavenly Sword, Marvel vs Capcom 3 and Third Strike Online.

[vanpeebles]

Voyage of the Beano and Fleet Tactical Command.

[Decider-VT]

Nice to see a new player really enjoying FFVII. It is a top game and despite being a tad overblown by fans, is one I have enjoyed three times.

I work in the games department of a shop, so quite a few of my co-workers were surprised when I said I hadn't played it. It's fun to see them trying to remember their preferred party formations and Materia combinations when we discuss it. The only reason I hadn't played it was because I was very anti-Sony in the 90s, so there's a lot of catching up to be done. I'm playing it on a 21" CRT for the full effect too, although it's funny to think that I could also play it on PSP these days.

Oh, I bought Third Strike Online last night too... I'm depressingly bad at it.

[redstar_dan]

So Ive been playing; 'Return to Dinosaur Land' on my Super Everdrive, such a superb smw hack. I need another sitting to finish it, it seems as tho I am very near the end.

Ive also been playing a lot of 'New Zealand Story' on the Megadrive. I would say its by far one of my favourite games in my collection. I must check out the Nes/Fami version. I wonder if the Megadrive version is a port of the Nes/Fami, hmm I should google that.

[tokyochojin]

All this FF7 is making me tempted to pick up a PSP (lost my previous crisis core silver one) as I don't have time to play it at home anymore.
Hilarious to think that as a 14 year old I never picked up on all those grammatical errors, GCSE education just didn't go as far as explaining basic punctuation at my old school. Probably why it's been shut down now.

[geldra]

Hello, not posted on here for ages, always loved perusing the retro section.

Anyway, been playing the arcade version of Pyros (aka Wardner no Mori) a bit recently, I reckon I'm about to break out of level 3 pretty soon (not much of an achievement to be fair). I've been obsessed with this game ever since watching a mate play it down on Ocean Road in South Shields waaaay back in the day (back when arcades were thriving, 1988-89, I'd have been about 12) and picked up the pcb about a year ago.

One of my enduring memories is of the spinning blade wheels on level2, it's weird what sticks in the brain about some games. I hear that the MD version has extra levels and stuff so I've tracked down a copy which I'll have a blast through after I've done the arcade ver.

[nakamura]

All this FF7 is making me tempted to pick up a PSP (lost my previous crisis core silver one) as I don't have time to play it at home anymore.
Hilarious to think that as a 14 year old I never picked up on all those grammatical errors, GCSE education just didn't go as far as explaining basic punctuation at my old school. Probably why it's been shut down now.

I think it is more down to pure excitement of playing the game than anything. That always took me over as a child. When a new game came out that I wanted I literally wouldn't be able to sleep for days beforehand in anticipation.

Now, I can buy a new title and not play it for days!

[CMcK]

Finally got round to trying out Gaiares on the MD last night. Very nice indeed. I like the weapon collection mechanic and the chunky old school visuals have a certain charm.
Also spent a bit time on Vapour Trail. Seemed a bit generic at first but revealed it charms after a wee while. I'm well impressed with the music though it is very good for an early MD game.

[Tetsuo]

I played Burnout 2 (GameCube version) to death this weekend. It was a shame to discover (from what I can see at least), that earning all of the gold medals from the crash and race modes didn't impart a reward.

Anyway, I love this game. The handling/drifting and sense of speed is orgasmic when you get it right, though it definitely takes longer to master because of some tricky track design and, funnily enough, the the detail of the graphics.

I'm fairly sure this now replaces Burnout 1 as the best in the series for me.

One strange thing that I'm hoping someone can confirm or otherwise: I remember playing this when it first came out (either on a friend's Xbox or PS2, can't remember which?) and seem to remember there being several short-cuts and alternative routes on the stages. One part I remember vividly was veering off to the side of a road and driving along a secret pathway, dipping down and crashing through some boxes to come back onto the main road again.

But in the GameCube version, there's nothing like this. Or did I just dream it? Are the console versions significantly different in any way?

[nakamura]

It was a shame to discover (from what I can see at least), that earning all of the gold medals from the crash and race modes didn't impart a reward.

Anyway, I love this game. The handling/drifting and sense of speed is orgasmic when you get it right

^That is your reward. Or do you need some kind of pointless popup giving you 50g?