When the Sega Saturn stream was announced i decided to look at my own game collection, to see what games i own for the Saturn. Looking through a binder i found a pre production sample of Crazy Taxi.

I don't remember when i got this, what i paid for it or even where it came from. My best guess is that this version was used in game stores as a demo before or after the game came out. I can't confirm if this was the full game or if it had the wonderful Offspring soundtrack.

If you thought it couldn't get any more weirder i found a copy of WindJammers for the Neo Geo CD. I honestly believe the Neo Geo CD system never came out in the UK, i could be wrong. The game is the American version but i could not imagine this running well with only having 1 or 2x CD drive speed.

Has promotion and advertising improved in the last 17 years since the PS2 came out. Go look at the back of some early PS2 manuals and you might this amazing promotion for the PS2 memory card. You do not want to lose your precious Fantavision data, here is 8MB to play with.

To wrap this up i found a video game magazine called Total Station (a UK magazine which started as Total Playstation in 1996 but changed their name to Total Station in 2000) from July 2000, which covered Sony's E3 presentation. I will upload a couple of pages which show coverage for Halo, Aliens Colonial Marine and a Running Man game. Could you just imagine Halo running on a PS2 (i know it's not the FPS version that we know and love). Finding out that Aliens Colonial Marine was being talked about in 2000 is intriguing but also kind of sad.

I have scanned the first 20 pages of 184 and there are a few interesting articles which i would like to upload for everyone's viewing pleasure.

I have just completed the Witcher 3 story and what a fantastic game. My history with the Witcher series is mixed to say the least. I loved the first game but absolutely hated the second game and i was skeptical of the Witcher 3 before release. My platform of choice was the PS4 and apart from a few technical issues (frame rate and some jank), the game was fine to play. Overall i spent 32+ hours in the game but i wish i could have spent more time but im quite busy trying to finish my EngD (Engineering Doctorate).

I thought the story was well written and kept me intrigued throughout the game and mission designs were different except for the overuse of the Witcher sense. The few side quests that i did were similar or even better than the story quests and are quite involved. Open world games generally have an issue of emptiness as filling that world with fun activities is difficult but the Witcher 3 has set a high standard now. You can go anywhere and you will always find something interesting to do and it is a gorgeous game to look at. For new players the story from Witcher 1 and 2 are subtly explained between the character interaction but would recommend reading a wiki to truly understand their past together.

The few issues i had were the character movement was annoying till the very end. I thought i got used to it but every time i tried to talk to someone, i would have to stand at an exact position to start the dialogue or to do anything. Also a word of warning the last story quest had the worst performance issues of the game. The frame rate dropped to 19 fps and in one case 3fps after a cutscene. I had only one major game crash causing the PS4 to lock up but apart from that it completely playable. I did not encounter the quest xp bug and had reached level 30 by the end.

I know there are multiple ending but without checking i may have got the true/best ending, i was more than happy with it. Well done CD Projekt Red you have made an awesome game and the rubbish that was Witcher 2 has been completely forgotten by me.

My name is Amar, i claim to be a fan of video games from old to new. Having played most of the major franchises, i thought i had a broad spectrum of knowledge from all of the games i had played but the Zelda series was the missing link (no pun intended). I had never played a single game from this illustrious franchise but i could not tell you why. I decided this had to change and with the release of the new 3DS and Majoras Mask i have embarked on a spectacular journey.

I know what you all are thinking, did i really start with Majoras Mask, was i really crazy enough to begin with the most polarising game of the series......NO. Ocarina of Time 3DS was the perfect place to start.

Ocarina of Time 3DS

I have heard it all when it comes to talking about this game. The perfect game, game of the decade and game of the century. After playing this game i have reached a conclusion, i love this game. Im not going to go into detail about every aspect of the game but here a few things which i was surprised about.

The targeting system: For a game to come out in 1998 and essentially introduce a functional targeting system must have been amazing experience for any video game player at that time. The ability to not only target, block and attack, the lasting effect of this blueprint for all games going forward is legacy which i respect and admire.

Dungeon variety: Each of the dungeons in OoT offer a different experience using a range of mechanics and the same can be said for all of the boss fights.

(Maybe if use my Blue Tunic to get across, damn i need a small key)

Upgrading: I can't really remember a lot of games from 1998 or earlier which i allowed for a variety of upgrades in a non rpg. You don't level up stats but having the ability to upgrade your hearts, bow, bombs and a lot of other items.

I know that there were a few changes from the original game but this has only made the game better especially for a newcomer.

Majoras Mask

Masks. masks and more masks. Stupid time mechanics and broken save system. What do i have to say about this game, i like the masks, i understand the time mechanics and they fixed the save system. I enjoyed my time with Majoras Mask and somewhere in my mind i might like this game more than Ocarina (remember i played these game back to back in the last two weeks).

Here is what i like about this game,

More open than OoT: I felt this game was more flexible in how you played. There were a lot of side quests which gives you masks, heart pieces and upgrades to your weapons. Some of the masks did make me laugh (especially the Kamaro's mask which makes you do a dance).

(Dance with me)

Time mechanic: A lot of people really don't like this mechanic but they probably have not played it again on the 3DS. The moon is going to crush in 3 days but you have the ability to alter time, slow it down or speed it up. Its different but i do appreciate it.

What's next for me?

Ideally i would like to play A Link to the Past (another fan favourite) but i do not have the means to play it. Sometime in the future i will buy a SNES version of the game but i decided to go for the next logical choice, A link Between Worlds. After i have finished it i will update my blog and let you all know how i feel.

Having played only two Zelda game i can understand the deep reverence for this franchise and why a lot people are looking forward to the next game.

Thank you for reading

I have just recently purchased X-com: UFO Defense and this partly due to the excitement around Xcom: Enemy Unknown. Before I start I have to be upfront about this, I have NEVER played any X-com game not even the new one. This is a challenge which I have set myself which is to break the myth that the original X-com games are hard.

Time to start X-com

The opening cut scene was just amazing, if you have not seen it please check it out.

As soon as you hit new game and select a difficulty (I’ll stick with beginner for now), it dumps you straight into the game with any explanation on the story or what to do. The first task is to select a location for my first base which i accidentally selected to be northern Africa.

The most jarring aspect of the game so far is the interface and this may put off a lot of people but I was not bothered by it (I’m going to regret saying this statement), the game came out in 1994 and you have to be mindful of that fact. The next thing was explore the bases option and discovered I can setup my units, create new bases, research new items etc. You’re given a budget and common sense tells you spend wisely and you’ll be ok.

Fast forward time

A UFO has been detected! I scrambled my interceptor jet to intercept the ufo and attack when seen but nothing happened. The ufo ran away, a small victory for me but I have no idea why it did not attack it. Fast forward time and another ufo approaches and again I repeat the same action with the same result. I may have to do some digging around to find out what is going on. At this point I had decided to look through the menu’s and gather as much info I can on all of the different mechanics the game when another ufo was detected, but this time it was a mission.

Mission time

My first mission and remember when I said the interface was not an issue well take a look at this screen.

WHAT AM I LOOKING AT!!!!! When I first looked at this I had to stop playing and think really hard at what each of the buttons represent and let’s just say everything fell apart. Some of the buttons are obvious like the up/down view screen option, crouching, select next soldier but some I had to find out by clicking them (big mistake). The up arrow on the plane button had caused me to ditch my team, plane and fail the mission all in a matter of seconds. I stopped playing the game at this particular moment.

So is X-com: UFO Defense a difficult game in terms of a rough interface design, I’m going to say yes. I wonder if I had the manual, would it explain the interface for me? I will go back to the game but I probably need to do some soul searching on the net before i make another attempt.

Thank you for reading and coming soon X-com: UFO Defense part 2.

 A few years ago i walked past this store called forbidden planet and took a peek inside, i discovered it had a lot of comics and figures. I didnt take notice and walked away, but later i discovered it had a small manga section at the back of the store. At that particular time i had no interest in anime/manga and never went back to the store. Now that ive become a big fan, i wanted to start my collection but i had totally forgotten that the store existed.  This became a problem for me as the only way i could buy manga was online but dont really like that method. 
 So last week during my travels i found the store again and popped in remembering that the manga was at the back of the store. As soon as i walked in i turned my head and seen hunderds of books and on closer inspection they were all manga. The store had become mostly for anime/manga, i was in a dream land, all my favourite series were there. Until i was brought back to reality, i had no money :(

 Well the current decade is nearly over, so I thought I would quickly recap what has happened to me over the 10 years. 
 

It’s the year 2000, about to begin Secondary school at the age of 12. The first day went by and I hated it. All I wanted to do was come home and play the original Playstation and complete Final Fantasy Vii. Later in the year while looking in a game magazine, I dreamt of buying a ps2. As the years went buy, I got myself a ps2 and played the best games available at the time, FFX, Metal Gear Solid 2 and GTA3.I managed to stumble across an invention called the internet and started to use Gamespot as my source for video gaming news. Growing to like the crew and spending my school days on the website, is something I will never forget.
 
Fast forward to the end of 2009, im 21 years old and currently studying Electrical and Electronic Engineering (4th year) at one of the top universities in . Now owning an Xbox 360 and visiting a website called Giantbomb, I think to myself, I would never have dreamed that this was going to happen. Hating school and now in university, who knew?

Oh well better get back to studying :)

Peace