Genesis-A-Day: Revolution-X
crafted by: AlexUpon finding a magic lamp, Alex rubs out a genie. Obviously, Alex wishes for a ton of genesis games. In this feature, Alex documents the results of that wish.
Notice that it says "CD disc"
Time played: 4 minutes.
CDs Shot: 23.
Back before you were playing Aerosmith songs on your plastic instruments like idiots, Aerosmith was super hardcore by appearing in a little classic known as Revolution-X. The arcade shooter, and by shooter i mean 2 machine guns attached to the cabinet, was flawfully ported to the Genesis back in the day. I owned Revolution-X on Genesis and I loved it. The game is super shitty, and your health is just slowly depleted as enemies shoot you, with no real indication that you are getting hurt.
There is a lot to be liked behind the terrible gameplay and controlling a light gun style game with the dpad. The whole idea about rock rebelling against an oppressive military government using machine guns and exploding CDs (because CDs are crazy new future technology) is hilariously amazing. And it could only be led by the most hardcore anti establishment band Aerosmith! I do really enjoy shooting all sorts of crazy stuff in the background to get upgraded weapons and more CDs, also the multi-part vehicles are great. I wish more light gun games had you shooting cats walking on fences.
Genesis-A-Day: Super Skidmarks
crafted by: AlexUpon finding a magic lamp, Alex rubs out a genie. Obviously, Alex wishes for a ton of genesis games. In this feature, Alex documents the results of that wish.
Time played: 1 minutes.
Resemblance to Super Off-Road: 100%
Every played Super Off Road? This game is that game. Yeah.
Okay okay. I'm sorry for this lame post, but this episode of South Park I'm watching is about Facebook is so bad it's distracting.
Can The iPad Replace My Laptop?
crafted by: AlexLet me first say that this is my first time writing something of this length on my iPad, so I will give my impressions of this experience at the end. I am using the Wordpress for iPad application to create this, and I won't fault the iPad for the drawbacks of this application... And let me tell you, it has many.
My laptop I got when I entered college was a top of the line IBM t43p, before Lenovo started making the thinkpad series. I really liked that computer until it could hardly run XP. I installed ubuntu on it and it can barely run that now. I needed a laptop replacement. I have a desktop which I use for all my heavy lifting. I have a laptop mostly for casual Internet browsing, talking to friend on aim, etc. I weighed the pros and cons of getting a MacBook, a netbook, and an iPad. In the end I decided on the iPad because it seemed to fit in with exactly what i would use it for. Also, I have been impressed with the iPhone as a gaming platform, and knew that the iPad would likely see similar growth.
I expected the iPad browsing experience to feel very similarity the iPhone, because it's just a big iPod touch, right? Wrong, the extra horsepower loads web pages a lot faster, and the pages feel even better to zoom in and out on, or scroll through. I am impressed by how nice the experience with the iPad is. Everything feels smooth and responsive. Only a very few times have I noticed hangups or lag, and this is only during third party apps, such as this one. Interacting with a smaller screen using the tips of your fingers works great. I have hated touch pads and those little rubber nipples on laptops ever since I got my first one five years ago. This just makes for a much better interaction when a mouse isn't around.
The standard apple apps have been redone, showing multiple panels at once. For example when browsing email there is always a sidebar displaying email, rather than the email taking up the entire page. This is definitely a nice addition. Also, a lot of these iPad applications seem to be retooled so that the iPad can be oriented in any way. A lot of apps on the iPhone were restricted to a single orientation. A few apps that were standard on the iPhone are gone, like the stocks and weather app, I'm not sure why. Luckily these can be replaced with free apps that are better than the iPhone standard counterparts.
The real focus here is, can this replace my laptop? After one full day with it I think it's doing a good job. Also I'll likely play more games on my iPad than I would have on a laptop, only because the iPad will likely get exclusive games, and the games don't require a mouse to be played effectively.
So far today I woke up, watched Lost using ABCs app, which blew me away with how well that worked. Well, the show didn't impress, but again, that is not the iPads fault. I browsed the Internet for a while, which was great, until I hit a dreaded flash page. Dun dun dunnnnn. I knew this would be an issue, but luckily, this didn't bother me to much. I knew I would occasionally run into flash and knew it wouldn't be places that would bother me. I talked to some people on AIM. This experience is nice on the iPad, hopefully it will be improved when multitasking is implemented. I wish there could be some sort of overlay functionality with certain apps, such as instant messaging, or Twitter.
The iPad is something that needs to be tried to understand what makes it so appealing, it just feels good. I this it is exactly what I'm looking for from a mobile computing device. One of my favorite things about it is that it can be off, and I can be browsing the internet in about 15 seconds, and after a couple minutes I can click a button to turn it off and be on my way. It's super light, I can fling it around my bed while watching tv or playing a game, and it doesn't get hot in my lap. It can be occasionally awkward to find a comfortable way to hold it, but usually I can prop up nicely without issue.
As for the typing experience. And I remind you I am typing this whole article from my iPad, it is decent at best. It's takes a little getting used to. People not used to having physical buttons may have more issues. I probably make 30% more errors typing on the iPad keyboard than a physical keyboard. This may change with time as I adjust. I actually think the typing experience is better than I imagined, but I would not suggest it for something like writing a school paper. It would be perfectly adequate for typing out ideas, or subsections of a paper on the go, and emailing them to yourself to pick up on a real laptop or desktop. There are some buttons I found i was constantly attempting to go to, such as the delete key, and the directional arrows, but these unfortunately don't exist, obviously due to space issues.
In terms of my experience with this word press app, Adding pictures is difficult/impossible. To get a picture I first need to grab it from the Internet, which isn't the best but, it's not as easy as it would be on a full size machine. As for placing the photo, I think this app may be broken... Oh no, it's not broken, it's just that all pictures will be placed at the bottom of the post. Well I guess I will now be switching over to my desktop form final editing. { some time later} It turns out you can type HTML into the Wordpress app, so I could have added the image tag myself, but typing HTML would have been torture, i have since switched to my desktop to make final edits. Likely in the future i will type out rough drafts as emails to myself, and take it from there on my desktop.
Genesis-A-Day: Air Diver
crafted by: AlexUpon finding a magic lamp, Alex rubs out a genie. Obviously, Alex wishes for a ton of genesis games. In this feature, Alex documents the results of that wish.
Time played:2 minutes.
Planes shot down: 5.
While normally I would write how shitty this game is. I think I can see where it would appeal to a young me. The cockpit of this plane looks cool. And there's a great boot up sequence where you cockpit closes right before you take off. This plays like an After Burner clone, but I think the cockpit gives it a more exciting feel. Also I like that planes can actually come from behind you, rather than always from the front. You can't actually turn around, so you just have to dodge around like an idiot till they just as stupidly fly by so you can shoot them. I'm still impressed by how cool the cockpit is, even though it takes up half the screen the entire time. Wait... why is this game called Air Diver, that doesn't make sense.
Resonance of Fate: 11th Hour
crafted by: AlexImpressions
Before I get to the tips, let me update you on my thoughts on the game so far. I'm about 11 hours into Resonance of Fate and loving it.
Normally your character is upside down when shooting, I don't know how someone got this picture
Story
The story so far is non-existent, though I am enjoying the slight character development and banter between the the three protagonists. I find that while this game has some odd japanese humor, I also find it genuinely funny. The oddness, I feel comes from the sections that the localizations team couldn't Americanize (physical appearances, character animations, overal scenes.) Otherwise the localization and voice acting seems well done. While there seems to be a lot of sexual jokes, they come across as genuine and funny. At first it seems you play a ragtag group of hunters. Subtly I realized that the main protagonist Vashyron is more of a father figure to his younger companions, while at the same time making jokes about their female companion Leanne "swinging both ways." It is odd that these subtleties show through the other wackiness in the game, ut I wanted to highlight the quality that may be not be obvious at first.
I wish I had a screen capture device to show you a scope on a scope... Yo dawg, I put a scope on your scope so you can snipe while you... I got nothing.
Battle system and Gun Customization
What separates this from Final Fantasy XIII in my mind is that I am not constantly looking forward to story development as a means of escape from battles. The gun customization, battle arena, and the battle system in general is so involved and fun that this game is great even without the story. Watch some video of the battles, you will be confused about whats going on, but they are a joy to watch, and you feel very involved in them throughout. The gun customization still feels limited in the first 11 hours, I have maxed out my guns with the best attachments i can find, but it's obvious in the future that there will be quite a bit to consider. My one gripe about the gun customization system is that it does not render the guns in any way with your added scopes, barrels, magazines, etc. All you get is what looks like a blueprint of a gun with disjointed gun parts all around it. Also you can do some really wonky stuff, like put 4 scopes on 1 gun, all of which give it their full bonuses. In a sense that makes me even more disappointed that they aren't rendered, i would have loved to see a handgun with 4 scopes, a really long barrel, and a vertical grip. Actually, why the hell is a vertical grip even important? The characters shoot with 1 almost all the time.
I wish getting dressed in the morning was this satisfying.
Dress Up
The clothing system is so great I'm giving it it's own header. A huge question from gamers about every RPG is "will equipment be physically represented on characters?" In JRPGs we usually see weapons physically represented, and rarely we get some different costumes. Though in a lot of games, costume changes are not represented in cut scenes. This is changing as consoles get better and developers don't use pre-rendered cut scenes. In Resonance of Fate, Tri-Ace has added a pretty robust dress up system. The best part however is that your changes are reflected everywhere. Change you hair color red, one eye green, one eye yellow(using contact lenses,) add a new coat, and you will see the changes in cut scenes, running around town, in battle, even in your character profile in the menu. This may not sound like it would have much impact, but when characters perform their victory pose blinged out with the glasses you gave them, you feel that this is your personal experience. Unfortunately, clothes are expensive, but I have found a decent amount of items throughout the world. On to the tips!
Good luck understand what i write... this game is so hard to describe.
Map / Overworld Progression
The Overworld looks like a hex map. You control a little marker on the map that actually acts as if you were running around a world map. You can get into random battles by moving your little marker around. You can only enter hexes you have unlocked with special energy hexes. Energy are won from battles, given out as part of the story, etc. Colored hexes are important for 2 reasons. Because you need the right colored energy hex piece to unlock a colored hex, the game uses this to prevent you from entering certain areas until you complete story elements. Secondly, you can can connect these colored hexes to "terminals" which will give you bonuses, like higher item drop rate. This essentially is an extension of your character progression. You could spend a lot of extra time farming colored hexes to get bonuses from these terminals. Also you get about 1 treasure for every 2 energy hexes you put down, which makes it very satisfying to lay down 20 or so energy hex pieces at one time. I really enjoy this system. Dungeons on the other hand are not as great. basically you go to a dungeon and a battle starts, when it finishes, the battle system is still half active (you can perform hero actions?), and you run to a neighboring hex to progress through the dungeon. It works, but it's not exploration heavy.
Genesis-A-Day: Syd of Valis
crafted by: AlexUpon finding a magic lamp, Alex rubs out a genie. Obviously, Alex wishes for a ton of genesis games. In this feature, Alex documents the results of that wish.
I died 2.3 seconds later
Time played: 2 minutes.
Girls in School Girl Outfits: Probably a lot.
This game is terrible. Terrible, terrible, terrible. 2D platformers were the staple of the 16 bit era, likely thanks to Mario. But it's shocking how many 2D platforms suck so hard. The screen doesn't even scroll to the right until you are 3/4 of the way to the right side of the screen, by the time an enemy is visible, it is almost hitting you. Luckily i learned i can hold the B button to jsut auto fire my sword fire ball attack and jsut run to the right. The boss is impossible. RRAWWWWWRRRRG I hate this game.
Resonance of Fate: Early Game Tips
crafted by: AlexSome of these tips may be obvious, however I keep reading about how difficult the battle system is. There is only one facet to the system I don't fully understand(gauge break), and one part that I find difficult to manipulate(airborne enemies.) However the rest of it does not seem too difficult, but it requires looking ahead 2-4 turns to properly place your characters on the battle field. These tips assume a basic knowledge of the battle system and may help those who are struggling with the game.
Do the tutorial, Twice
Okay, you don't need to do it twice, but don't think you will be able to skip the tutorial completely. This sounds obvious, but make sure you understand the mechanics because the battle system IS complex, but not incomprehensible, do parts twice if you don't understand them at first. A few extra minutes up front will increase you enjoyment of the game, and effectiveness in battle.
Hero Action = Basic Attack
Reviews and even the game tutorial seem to talk about hero actions as a sort of special move that is not often used. If you have a full Hero Gauge, you should use a Hero Action. A standard attack should be called a safety attack. I use Hero Attacks 95% of the time. Your goal, any time you use a hero action with a direct damage weapon, is to fully refill your hero gauge, this will keep you safe from critical conditions. I find attempts to use standard attacks end up with me taking too much damage.
Don't kill weak enemies with a full hero gauge
If you are in the middle of a hero action and have a full hero gauge, don't kill off weaker enemies, save them to kill of during another hero action to refill your gauge.
Try to level up your weapon skills equally
You will have higher total health. Your total level is decided by the total of your 3 weapon skills (ie. Handguns lvl. 4 + Machine Guns lvl. 6 + Thrown Weapons lvl. 2 = Level 12). Your health and carry weight is determined by your total level. The total level cap is 300, the level cap of each weapon is 100. As you level up a weapon, it takes more experience to level up. So if you don't switch around your sub machine gun in the early game you may find you are lacking health on all of your characters. This is contrary to many RPGs where specialization is key.
Stagger opponents that are about to attack.
While I don't understand what exactly causes enemies to stagger, sometimes when you attack an enemy, their charged up attack will reset. Use with to prevent enemies about to deal damage to you or your allies.
Skip a turn to use your Sub Machine gun character.
In the early game you get 2 handguns, and 1 sub-machine gun. The sub-machine gun is your damage dealer. The game plays out in "turns" where each of your 3 characters performs an action before the next turn starts, the only penalty for skipping a turn seems to be resetting your Resonance points, enemies do not seem to gain anything since you they only move while you move or attack. So unless you are going to use a tri-attack, it may be more beneficial to skip you second handgun character, throw down more scratch damage with your sub-machine gun.
Don't forget, you can grind
You may have forgotten what it's like, but it's possible to grind in this game. If you are having trouble, hit up the arena or the back alleys, earn experience to up your health, earn money to upgrade you weapon customizations. Luckily, the pleasure of watching crazy acrobatic gun play doesn't get old fast.
Focus your scratch damage
Enemies heal scratch damage relatively fast, during the time it takes a character to run the max distance, most enemies seem capable of healing almost all of their scratch damage. This means if you have 4 enemies with scratch damage, the last couple may be largely healed before you do direct damage. Focus your scratch damage on just a couple enemies and quickly do direct damage during your next turn, unless of course you have already maxed out scratch damage on 2 enemies, then move on to the next.
Target the closest enemy
This should be obvious, but since your charge meter is faster when targeting a closer enemy, plan you hero actions to run very close to enemies, and as you run, always target the closest enemy. This will ensure the most (powerful) attacks during your hero action. Make sure to target the closest enemy BEFORE you begin your hero action so you don't want time changing targets. I've made this mistake multiple times.
If you stumble your way to this article somehow, please, let me know what you think. Are these too basic? Were they helpful? Would you like to see more? At the very least, maybe Paul will find them helpful in the future.
Genesis-A-Day: James Pond 3 – Operation Starfish
crafted by: AlexUpon finding a magic lamp, Alex rubs out a genie. Obviously, Alex wishes for a ton of genesis games. In this feature, Alex documents the results of that wish.
Time played: 3 minutes.
# of limbs fish apparently have: 4
Okay, game 3 is again another completely different game. This one plays like a mix of Sonic and Mario Bros. 2. First off, when you run down a hill you pick up some incredibly speed which you then use that momentum to make it up the hill on the other side. All those random items used for points in the first two games are now interactive. You can pick them up like in Mario Bros. 2 then throw them. There was a bomb that exploded and an umbrella that slowed down Mr. Ponds fall speed. This all seems pretty interesting actually, except that I couldn't figure out how to get over the second hill in the game. I'm curious how the item interaction works later in the game but I don't have the patience for any more of James Pond's bullshit. I need to find the James Pond game where he competes in the Olympics. How did 3 (or more) of these games get made???
2 Hours With Resonance of Fate
crafted by: Alex
I attempted to play this game after a night out with friends and some drinks. Trying to comprehend this game while anything but completely sober would be a mistake. Luckily I fell asleep before I even reached the battle tutorial. Easter Sunday I took to the world of guns and somersaults, and by the time the roast beef was done 2 hours later, I wasn't ready to call it quits.
I recently finished Final Fantasy which is a big departure from the standard JRPG fare. While this isn't bad, and I liked Final Fantasy XIII a lot, I really missed that it didn't feel too much like a JRPG other than some annoying characters and convoluted story. I've only enjoyed one JRPG this generation, and that is Tales of Vesperia. Final Fantasy wet my appitite for the delicious grinding of a more standard JRPG.
Resonance of Fate on the other hand, feels like a good old JRPG. On that same note, Resonance of Fate is arguably just as innovative with the battle system as Final Fantasy, though it does not seem as intricate. Maybe this will change when i near 30 hours like it did with Final Fantasy, I'll will report back when i find out. I really enjoy that this game starts out by throwing you right into the fray. The tutorial for the battle system is given right up front and is mostly text based, but it is over in an hour rather than in 20 minutes, and the combat system seems just as difficult as Final Fantasy's. While I haven't touched the gun customization yet, I am excited as it looks like a very interesting and deep system
The world map is unique in that it is a hex grid that is slowly unlocked. Piece must be found to unlock them either by defeating standard enemies, or I assuem through story based mission. This gives the game a bit even more feeling of those JRPG elements of progression and buildup.
After hearing that even 20 hours in someone was still learning the intricacies of the battle system, and that a certain scene in the game could be contender for perviest scene of the year, I was worried. After my first 2 hours with the game, I am extremely happy with the game. I'm excited for JRPGs once more.
Genesis-A-Day: James Pond 2 – Codename RoboCod
crafted by: AlexUpon finding a magic lamp, Alex rubs out a genie. Obviously, Alex wishes for a ton of genesis games. In this feature, Alex documents the results of that wish.
Time played: 1 minutes.
Times James Pond looked like a weiner: 3.
He can go on like this forever...
Wow this game is completely different than the original. This plays out like a pretty standard platformer, except you get an ability to stretch your body to look like a wiener with a fish head and with fish hands? I was unaware what this was for at first other than to grab random items for points (umbrella, tire, ice cream cone, I told you it was random.) Apparently you can stretch you body to grab the ceiling and shimming your way over pits in the slowest way possibly. A decent upgrade of the original James Pond, but still forgettable.
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