Summer Games Challenge 2016

[Xeogred]

I'd argue Shattered Memories is so different, it's actually not a remake. It's bad... reaaaaaal bad.

Anyways Exhum, as I've mentioned I finally just ran through the series myself two years back or something, release date order is definitely the best path. It's also cool just to see how the mechanics and series evolves on a technical level. It's frightening (pun intended?) how well the PS2 games hold up even to this day, they make a lot of last and current gen games look pretty bad.

Crossing my fingers you like 4. It's lonely being a huge fan of that one.

[Exhuminator]

I played through Echo Night: Beyond almost a decade ago and was blown away by it.

I owned a real copy of the game back in 2007, and played it for a bit. I was ignorant to its intent and sadly sold the game for a pittance. Here we are nine years later, and I'm sure I would "get it" now, and I plan to give the series a chance again, starting from the first. Now that all three games are available in English, it's a tempting proposition.

Crossing my fingers you like 4. It's lonely being a huge fan of that one.

I remember my brother liked Silent Hill 4, so there's at least one other fan of the game.

I really need to step up my experience with survival horror in general. The only series I've beaten a lot of games in, is the Resident Evil franchise. But those games are really not scary, despite being fun. I think with stuff like Silent Hill and Fatal Frame, those are probably legit freaky / scary games. Maybe it's the fact that my dork cave is on the other side of the house, and I'd be totally alone, in the dark, playing with headphones... it's too daunting? Maybe that's why I've avoided the genre for so long. Gotta stop being a wuss and give this stuff a fair shot.

[Ack]

Well Exhum, you have a ton of options for getting more into survival horror beyond the RE games. If you want to stick with the classics then I really do suggest Silent Hill and Fatal Frame to start off with. After that, you can branch out into the some of the more unusual entries in the genre, like Haunting Ground, Illbleed, Martian Gothic: Unification, and a whole slew of others.

[Sarge]

I've only played through one game in the genre that I can remember right now: Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. That was a really good one.

[Exhuminator]

Thanks for the recommendations guys. As for the games mentioned, for the sake of conversation, I'll tell you my experience with them.

>Silent Hill

Only played the first game on PS1. Made it to a puzzle, I think it was the drain/key puzzle, and lost interest. This was circa 2001, I was a very different gamer back then. Today I think I would appreciate Silent Hill. I plan to play it after L.A. Noire. I own every Silent Hill game pre-seventh gen though. Because, well, I collect everything I guess.

>Fatal Frame

I own Fatal Frame 1 & 2 on Xbox, 3 on PS2. I've only played the first Fatal Frame on Xbox, circa 2008. I didn't make it very far, I remember getting stuck and not knowing where to go. Today I'd be more methodical and enjoy it more I reckon.

>Haunting Ground

I played this on PS2 back in 2007. Put about two hours into it. I loved the graphics and protagonist, but I recall becoming annoyed at having to run and hide all the time. Today I might enjoy it more. I distinctly remember seeing a promo shot of this game where the protagonist was wearing Cammy's outfit in game, as an optional outfit. But I can't find any proof that ever existed now... weird.

>Illbleed

Played this when it released on a friend's Dreamcast. I remember thinking it was very unique, but a bit tedious to play. Wouldn't mind revisiting it. I've got the game and a Dreamcast, but that stuffs all boxed up in a closet right now.

>Martian Gothic: Unification

I played this on PC around 2000, shortly after it released. I was intrigued by the setting, and the ability to use multiple protagonists. However, the actual play of the thing wasn't too fun from what I remember. Like having to constantly use vacuum tubes to move items between the characters for example. It's hard to remember why I didn't finish this game, but that was sixteen years ago.

>Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem

I never played this personally, but back when it released, I watched my roommate play it for a good long while. The sanity effects and graphics were really nice for its time. But the amount of backtracking and retreading was too much for me. I think if the game was 1/3rd as long, I'd find it more appealing.

[Ack]

Sanitarium

This discussion is going to include spoilers. I'm advising you upfront. If you don't want to know the answer to certain puzzles or my musings on the plot, please skip over my post.

This is a point-and-click horror adventure, though it's not the kind of horror I had played previously. Whereas Alone in the Dark and Silent Hill are both survival horror games(well...AitD predates the term, but if the shoe fits...), Sanitarium is much more psychological in its approach. It tends towards the bizarre and uses its settings, its story presentation, even its in-game menu to unsettle the player. While there is combat and player death, it is simplistic and limited in scope. I've read that even if I die, I respawn with no progress lost, so while the threat is momentary, it's not so incredible as to completely hinder the player. No, that's for the strength of the puzzles and the disturbing nature of the plot to handle.

The controls in Sanitarium are something that I'd been told were a chore to deal with, but really they're not so bad. The left mouse button interacts with things and can be used to check your personal inventory, while the right mouse button is used to move you by holding the button down which makes your character walk. Unfortunately our hero doesn't show much hustle, so that is a little frustrating, but it's certainly something I can deal with. The game also seems poorly optimized for modern systems, so occasionally I'll notice it struggling, though this usually only occurs when there are both physical actions and dialog(with full voice work) going on at the same time.

The story starts off with next to no information: you're a guy who has just made some kind of discovery. You rush home on a stormy night, but your car slips off the road and crashes. The next thing you know, you wake in a filthy asylum with no sense of who you are or how you got there. Your face is wrapped in bandages, and your only clothing appear to be scrubs. You can talk to your fellow inmates, but they're...well, they're not all there. Now start solving puzzles.

Thankfully Chapter 1's aren't too bad. Chapter 2 however includes a puzzle I'd read was quite tough in reviews. Beating the first chapter brings you out of the asylum and into a small town inhabited only by deformed children who speak of Mother. Investigation leads you to the truth, that all of the adults in town are dead, their bodies left to rot in the school, and Mother is a sentient plant that is mutating the children on a cellular level because "the meat is evil." The big puzzle I'd heard about was a game of hide-and-seek with some of the children.

Truth be told, it really wasn't that hard. I just walked around and managed to spot all of the kids, some hiding in barrels of dead fish, others concealed among the decaying corpses of their parents. Locating all five resulted in my getting access to a shovel, but I was then told about the kids' "secret weapon," a girl so good at hide-and-seek that no one had seen her in a year.

The shovel was used to dig up a grave, where I found the corpse of the sixth child. The children counted a dead girl who'd been buried as someone playing the game. When I discovered her, her little brother put her cadaver into a wagon and dragged it around the moldy lemonade stand like nothing was the matter. That's the kind of game Sanitarium is.

[Ack]

Sanitarium

Another day, another chapter of Sanitarium is complete. That means I'm done with 3 out of 14 apparently. This time I was most definitely back in an asylum populated with both the mad and the cruel, though that goes more for the orderlies than the inmates. Conversations with the various inmates led me to discover Elvis, learn about the Church of Bob, and listen to poetry about how well human meat goes with potatoes.

This is most definitely not reality though, as occasionally I would spot a gargoyle sculpture move and the trees have faces. Over the course of my journey I've found subtle references to my character's life, such as a wrecked car in the town full of deformed children or being called a doctor by the asylum inmates, which leads Max to realize he really is a doctor in life. All of these levels are somehow related to Max's subconscious, so as I piece together the puzzle, I pull back the shattered fragments of his sanity to hopefully bring him back to lucidity.

The asylum did feature a little bit of fetch questing, though a new puzzle was also involved where I had to direct water flow through the sewage system to fill a fountain. Once I understood what I was doing, the puzzle was not so bad, though it took me a few minutes to realize which target I was trying to fill. Once done, I was presented with a new memory of Max's sister dying during childhood as Max struggled to find a clown doll she wanted in her final moments. This brought me to chapter four, where I'm in a dreadful circus...and a little girl. That's rather interesting, I think I'm playing as Max's dead sister and about to confront the grief and blame he felt over her death. In a rundown circus. With corpses floating in the surrounding bog. Lovely.

[alienjesus]

It's been a while, but I've got back to my Summer Challenge at last. I felt like I needed a bit of a palette cleanser from Fire Emblem before I jump back into that, so I went with some shorter form stuff this evening.



I kicked off with Mario Golf for N64. I started this last year for Together Retro, but only made it as far as the second tournament. I was out of practice and couldn't remember how to play, so I jumped into the first tournament again to get the hang of things.

I had some terrible luck with weather - rain on about 50% of courses and lots of strong winds made it so it was actually quite a brutal reintroduction to the game. I ended up finishing the game with +2 over PAR, scoring me 2nd place overall. Not too bad, but I'm gonna need to improve substantially to finish the game



Speaking of needing lots of improvement, I followed up Mario Golf with some Samurai Shodown. Oh my, this is quite tricky. I tried it on Normal and got the floor wiped with me from the outset, so I pussied out and chose Easy, and my gods it didn't help much. After a few failed attempts where I copped it on one of the first 2 battles (the game has limited continues I was very unhappy to learn, so no breaking through this one with a lot of patience and endless attempts like most fighting games), I finally managed to get a decent run going, where I died on the 7th match, against Ukyo.

That means on my very best attempt at the game, I managed to beat 6 out of 13 opponents whilst using 3 continues. On Easy.

Man, this is gonna be rough. It is fun though, I love the atmosphere and the music too. The character designs are a bit generic and forgettable in general, although a couple of them are cool enough. I played as Nakoruru if anyone was wondering - the small rushdown characters are normally my thing, although I found Samurai Shodown is a game that rewards one careful big hit over many small ones, so maybe I should try someone with a bit more range instead.

[Ack]

Who are you playing as in Sam Sho, aj?

[alienjesus]

Who are you playing as in Sam Sho, aj?

Nakoruru. I might give someone else a shot next time though.