When not writing - gaming

[John Dodds]

Actually Pink, if you buy yourself a cheapo PSX memory card for the PS2 you can play PSX games on the newer console. So if your first console is dead there's no problem.

Riven, hmm. I liked the Myst games, and completed Myst and Riven, and completed them. though Myst Exile has me completely stumped. The puzzles are just too...well, puzzling. I haven't tried Xenogears or Star Ocean, and never heard of Vandal Hears, so can't comment. I've read good things about the Digital Devil saga, which looks right up your street - quite fancy them myself.

[pink]

Well, I feel a bit stupid now, because in a curious moment I put one of my PSX CDs in my PS2, and it worked.

I was actually confusing Silent Hill with parasite eve. Parasite Eve is the one I liked and (do you see a trend developing here?) never finished. Silent Hill made me need to change my trousers. And I think the cover art of Resident Evil (nemsis) scared me so much that I never opened it!

I've also never finished several Tomb Raiders. Or even Rayman.

[John Dodds]

Pink - the alternative to having to change trousers is just to put some heavy canvas or a rubber sheet over the armchair. Works for me.

But seriously, Tom Raider (the most recent one, not Anniversary) is excellent and worth playing through. It's mostly puzzle solving with some fighting thrown in. Rayman? Played a bit of Rayman: Raving Rabbids with friends recently. Thought it was very funny, rather than scary. Torturing those poor rabbids is so cruel.

[pink]

I didn't finish rayman not because of fear, but boredom - I got bored doing the same bits over and over again when I couldn't finish the last levels!

I have a high boredom threshold, and leave unfinished projects scattered around like confetti.

I can't finish playing parasite eve though - which I'd really quite like to - because I've just realised it's an NTSC disk, and my ps2 is only PAL. I might have to get the ps fixed to play it!

[John Dodds]

Is Parasite Eve a PSX or a PS2 game? What sort of game is it, and is it worth buying (you seem to be keen on it, but I am not sure what it is like as a game)

[KB]

Tomb Raider Anniversary is definitely great. Right now I am completely stuck on one of the rooms in Portal (part of the Orange Box), though...

[KB]

Oh man. Just completed Portal (part of The Orange Box package with Half-Life 2 etc. Hilarious. I read that it had possibly the best end-credit song ever written, and so it has. I'm still humming it: "And while you're dying I'll be... still alive" la la la, la la la... Genius. No, really. The funniest game I've played since back when games relied on humour through lack of technology.
Best,
Keith

[Khadrelt]

A great game with humor rampant throughout is Giants: Citizen Kabuto. The cutscenes in that one crack me up.

[pink]

Well done KB

Parasite eve was a playstation game, but my version is a US version, so it will only play on my modified playstation, and not my off the shelf PS2. I don't think a UK one was released.

[Eldritch]

Personally, I'm a retro fan. Be it Jet Pak on a ZX Spectrum Emulator, or playing old arcade games, from Outrun, to Puzzle Bobble, I'm transfixed. (That's probably the reason my writing's taking so long) Best of all, I don't even need to leave my mac to play them.

Another favourite pastime is text adventures. Just found, and having great fun with, the graphic/text version of James Herbert's The Rats.

[KB]

Lol... I still play Renegade and Target: Renegade on a ZX Spectrum emulator. But don't mention Outrun. I used to love it at the arcades, then when the first Sega home console came out, I had one for Christmas and my best friend came around and completed the whole bloody game (all paths) straight away. I've never forgiven him. Actually, what I liked about Portal, though, was it was a real throwback to old-fashioned gaming. It had a set amount of elements and then you just went into different rooms and had to work out how to get out, into the next room. All the while this hilarious AI with a flat-sounding female voice is making comments: "This room is impossible. I wouldn't even try this room if I were you. I would just give up and go home. Well done, you have completed the room. You persevere in the face of severe pessimism... We would like to take this opportunity to remind you that the companion cube you are carrying cannot speak. In the event that it does speak, please ignore it..." Well, you kind of have to be there. But anyway, it really reminded me of those old games where you would just have to navigate your way through one screen just to get to the next, and on each screen there would be some tongue-in-cheek text.
Best,
Keith

[Eldritch]

But don't mention Outrun. I used to love it at the arcades, then when the first Sega home console came out, I had one for Christmas and my best friend came around and completed the whole bloody game (all paths) straight away. I've never forgiven him.

Maybe this'll make you feel better. I'm playing the original arcade version and still finding it as hard today as I ever did. So perhaps the console version was far easier.

Though, as I'm writing this, I'm thinking, if you did'nt complete the console version either, I've just propbably made you feel a whole lot worse.

[Jolanth Szatmary]

Just found, and having great fun with, the graphic/text version of James Herbert's The Rats.

Sounds interesting ... any hints on where to find this? G. didn't help.

Thanks!

j.

[Eldritch]

Hi Jolanth

The Game can be found at
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseek ... id=0004039

Should you not have one, you'll need a ZX Spectrum emulator to play it. My recomendation is ZXSP-OSX. Not found another Spectrum emulator that can touch this.

[Jolanth Szatmary]

Thanks a lot! I will reward myself with this when and if I finish my current project on time.