Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Retro|Spective 190: The Final Tour of Xbox

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    #76
    Originally posted by CMcK View Post
    You had to start from scratch.
    I don't really see the point of the eject button if it's game over either way!

    Comment


      #77
      Originally posted by Neon Ignition View Post
      It was such a long time ago I might well be wrong with this but I remember the game essentially being pretty straight forward, like one of those where the controller essentially was the game. Mission structures etc were all very simple so the complicated act of starting up your mech, navigating in battle etc was the game in essence, the same game made to work on a controller would basically rob everything worthwhile from the game.
      Yep, the underlying game was really just a quite basic Mechwarrior-style game, simple missions, simple objectives... Like even more basic than something like Gungriffon on Saturn.

      The challenge came from some of the aspects of the sim.

      To give an example, the mech had gears, and if you shifted too much, it could actually trip over its feet and fall. However, there was a "step" pedal; if you hit that pedal and a direction, the mech would thrust its foot out that way, which could be used to step in/out from behind buildings. If the mech started to fall, you could "step" in the direction of the fall and arrest it before you fell over.

      Another one is that to start moving, you had to follow a startup sequence, where you had to initialise systems in the right order and at the right time to not overload the mech's reactor output; if you did, the robot would short out and you'd have to start over. If you took a very powerful hit in battle, your robot could shut down and you'd have to do rapidly do this sequence while you could hear shots pounding against your armour from the outside. To help, there was actually a "fast" way to get started again, where you'd basically bump-start the robot by spidering your hands over several buttons and speeding through the checklist, causing it to roar back to life with some damage, but much quicker so you might not die.

      The controller very much was the game.

      Originally posted by QualityChimp View Post
      I don't really see the point of the eject button if it's game over either way!
      IIRC it was that if you died you had to start the game over. You could restart the mission if you ejected.

      However, the eject button had a cover over it which had a microswitch, so you needed to have the cover closed when playing. That meant when you ejected, you had to fumble to open the cover and could die before hitting the button.

      Comment


        #78
        Originally posted by Asura View Post
        IIRC it was that if you died you had to start the game over. You could restart the mission if you ejected.

        However, the eject button had a cover over it which had a microswitch, so you needed to have the cover closed when playing. That meant when you ejected, you had to fumble to open the cover and could die before hitting the button.
        Ah, that makes more sense and is pretty cool, cheers!

        Comment


          #79
          That gives me a ton of clarity on how it actually plays, thank you both!

          If anything I’m even more intrigued now. I really want to give it a go.

          Comment


            #80
            Originally posted by wakka View Post
            That gives me a ton of clarity on how it actually plays, thank you both!

            If anything I’m even more intrigued now. I really want to give it a go.
            Honestly I would do it, and damn the price.

            It cost me -£30 because I bought it, played it for a few weeks, then sold it. It holds its value well. It costs nothing if you sell it at cost afterwards.

            Comment


              #81
              Originally posted by Neon Ignition View Post
              Did this Buffy game absolutely Slay Xbox players?
              (Yes I know I'm late to the party)

              Pretty sure I reviewed this for Bordersdown - can't remember what I scored it. I do remember that it did a very good job of capturing the feel of the show - but for some reason, Buffy was not able to swin giving you insta-death, which was really annoying.

              Definitely one of the better TV franchise tie-ins of the time tho.

              Originally posted by Neon Ignition View Post
              The penultimate day of our Xbox look back:


              Steel Battalion / Steel Battalion: Line of Contact

              Did any of these delight your senses?
              We gave this a 10/10 on Bordersdown - worst score the site gave ever. A tiny 180px180px viewport and a game that was totally carried by the huge controller (which I still have in my loft, boxed and mint and have used about twice). The game was utter gargage - this should have been 4/10 tops and the Kinect based sequel was even worse.

              Someone want to buy it for £200? 10/10 would play again!!11!
              Last edited by MartyG; 17-06-2021, 08:47.

              Comment


                #82
                Complete side note but I noticed last night the latest Dominos advert has some guys calling out for pizza and at the start one of them is playing on a console, the controller looks odd but familiar and after a beat it dawned that it was an OG Xbox S controller. OG Xbox in fashion again!

                Comment

                Working...
                X