High On Life

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 03/23/2023
Posted in: Linux, Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, Steam Deck Verification, Steam Deck Verified, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S. Leave a comment

Publisher: Squanch Games

Developer: Squanch Games

Release Date: 12/13/2022


Also Available On

What would it be like if humans were invaded by aliens, but they weren’t killed or captured for the usual reasons. What if we were awesome drugs? That’s what High On Life is all about. It’s written like a Rick & Morty episode which would be expected. Justin Roiland heads the writing and voice acting for the game just like in the shows. If you don’t like Rick & Morty then you won’t like this game either. I thought it was insanely funny and had a lot of witty humor not just in general, but also poking fun at gaming tropes. Walk away from a character mid-sentence and they will comment on it, sprint for too long, stand in one place for too long, and many other things.

The opening sequence sees your planet being invaded by aliens while you and your sister are in your house with your parents away. A series of events follow and you acquire your first talking weapon, Kenny, and then you are introduced to the game mechanics. There are five talking guns in total, and I found this very original and more interesting than just making a standard shooter. Each weapon is organic and shoots organic ammo. Kenny is a standard pistol, but using his Trickhole sees him shooting a green bouncing blob. This can be used to solve a few puzzles in the game as well. The second weapon is Gus. He’s your standard shotgun, but his Trick is a bouncing saw blade that can be volleyed with your knife. He can also suck enemies toward you. The third gun is Sweezy who is clearly a mock of Halo’s Needler gun. She can be used as a sniper pistol and uses a bubble that slows down time. Shoot the bubble to have it expand and explode to do damage. The fourth standard gun is Creature. He is kind of like a grenade launcher, but he shoots babies that attack enemies. His trick is a mind control baby that can help you out. He wound up becoming my favorite weapon just because the babies are fast and can kill enemies quickly and keep them off of you.

The final gun is Lezduit, but he is only used in the final level as a very powerful ultimate weapon. These guns will talk to you through the whole game and the humor is injected even into their animations. They stare at you and make faces, comment on everything you do, and just have this gross wet, and squishy biological thing about them. The game’s humor is full of vulgar humor from the sexual, potty, and overall just stuff that everyone usually laughs about. These weapons kind of remind me of Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath. Weapons that are living and interact with you. The entire game is very organic and everything just looks and feels wet and goopy. It’s pretty hilarious.

Sadly, the story isn’t anything to write home about. It’s pretty much just like a TV show episode. You run around from level to level shooting the same bad guys in waves, jump around a bit, and kill a boss at the end of each level. These are bounties that you can turn in for Pesos to purchase suit and weapon upgrades at the pawn shop. Upgrades can give you bigger clip sizes, faster reloads, and enhance your Trick. Each boss fight is mostly different. A couple of them are pretty funny, but not everyone requires you to face the actual boss itself. I don’t want to spoil anything, but these are well done. You do eventually acquire a grappling hook to swing across larger gaps, a jetpack, and mag boots to walk on certain surfaces, but overall the combat beat is pretty repetitive. Sadly, despite how cool the weapons are, none of them feel very powerful and I always felt like I couldn’t kill as efficiently as I could in other shooters. Enemies are sponges and take a lot of damage and this can get frustrating with a lot of them coming after you. No matter what weapon I switched to I just felt like the balancing was off. Up close, Gus doesn’t do enough damage, and far away Sweezy’s charge shot can’t do enough damage. I just didn’t understand it.

Most of the cut-scenes are just characters talking in front of you and there are very few scripted events. You are mostly just going planet to planet, killing wave after wave, and killing a boss at the end. It’s very repetitive and I wanted to lose interest in the game pretty early on. The characters and writing are really fun, but it’s those long stretches of endless shooting that can really bore you. The shooting is bad, just unbalanced and there’s no variety. My favorite parts of the game were just the dialog and seeing new planets and character interactions. The shooting kind of came second. I really wanted to like the shooting more, but something just always feels off.

In the 8 hours it takes to finish the game it sadly has a really bad ending. It just quickly ends, and this goes to show there really aren’t any characters you can get attached to. They are all written like the small characters on the TV show rather than larger characters who should be memorable and defined. Kenny was probably the most interesting character of them all. This is one of those games that would be a good rental, and then you would quickly forget about it. There’s so much potential here for this to be a better game, but just not enough to put into it for it to be as refined as the games it makes fun of. Even the visuals, as bright and colorful as they are, kind of all blend together and the game is a technical mess. A poorly optimized Unreal 5 engine causes the game to run pretty badly even on really powerful PCs.

Overall, High On Life is a riot of a game with witty and fun dialog, funny characters, and some interesting weapon ideas, but the game’s moment-to-moment beat is repetitive and dull. You never feel like your weapons are powerful enough to do what they should thanks to bullet sponge enemies, but at least the boss fights are clever and funny. There are very few scripted events so there’s nothing to break up the mundane gameplay outside of standing still and listening to characters talk. The game is also poorly optimized despite how pretty the visuals are. Playing this once and forgetting is sadly what most people will do.

The Callisto Protocol

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 03/20/2023
Posted in: Linux, Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Verification, Steam Deck Verified, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S. Leave a comment

Publisher: Krafton, Inc.

Developer: Striking Distance Studios

Release Date: 12/02/2022


Also Available On

Dead Space was one of the last original IPs to really push the horror genre forward. I felt it was the only horror game to take Resident Evil 4’s torch and carry it along. The Callisto Protocol received a ton of hype because Dead Space’s co-creator Glen Schofield was leading the charge. The game was another third-person horror shooter with sick monster designs, a desolate Callisto moon, and a great story. I was honestly shocked by how below average this adventure is and was quite saddened the longer I played.

The game actually starts out quite well. You are Jabob Lee. A space courier delivering medicine to the prison colony on Callisto when suddenly everything goes wrong. Your ship crashes and you are wrongfully charged for a crime you did not commit. The game takes you on a pretty long cinematic journey for the first 30-45 minutes before the action starts. This is when things immediately started falling apart. The game’s main mechanic is melee combat. That would be fine and all, but it just doesn’t work as intended. You are expected to go one-on-one with each enemy and whack at them like Whack-A-Mole and then dodge attacks. It’s a dodge-and-then-attack type combat system. You can’t parry without unlocking it as an upgrade and animations can’t be quickly interrupted. It’s hard to judge the enemy’s attacks and how long their combo will go on. These animations just aren’t well done. It lead to many cheap deaths that came from the animations being too long and not interruptable.

This makes the first couple of chapters a chore, and most people might quit here. You do get weapons, but ammo is scarce until later on in the game. There are five weapons you can acquire, but don’t think these are as unique or interesting as Dead Space’s weapons. You really only get three weapons with two being nearly identical. Two pistols and two shotguns. One is a “Skunk” gun and the other is a riot gun. The only difference was their spread, to be honest. Your first weapon is the Hand Cannon which can pack a punch, but the Tactical Pistol is nearly useless. All of these weapons feel handicapped until you start upgrading them. Just like Dead Space, you get a limited inventory with healing items, valuables, and ammo. It’s literally a 1:1 ratio of how Dead Space plays.

Weapons are acquired by finding schematics (yeah that’s a direct copy too). You can find 3D printing stations throughout the game that will print add-ons, health, and ammo, but you won’t be able to buy everything in one play-through. No matter how thorough you are. It’s best to just upgrade the Hand Cannon and either Skunkworks or Riot Gun and do the rest on the next play-through. That is if you even want to. This hand-to-hand combat with these monsters just isn’t fun. Once I was able to get more ammo more often by stomping enemies (seeing a pattern here?) I tried to avoid melee combat. That’s not a good thing when the core combat mechanic is so bad that you don’t want to ever use it. Sadly, it’s forced upon you during the same two repetitive boss fights, but there were a couple of patches later on that made it more tolerable, but still not good.

Sadly, despite how great the visuals are the level design is insanely linear and boring. You just run down the corridor after corridor fighting randomly popping-up monsters until you get to the next fuse, switch, or generator. It’s pretty mundane and has already been done in many games before it. Unlike Dead Space, there are no puzzles here. In fact, the overall level design is just elementary and basic at best. There is one area where you must sneak around monsters that are sensitive to sounds. You can stab them in the back and do takedowns, but this was for an entire chapter. It became dull really fast. The only advantage was killing them all silently and then stomping on them to rack up tons of ammo. You do get a grappling glove that allows you to pull and push objects away, but this just seemed like an excuse to use death traps in certain arenas. It was poorly implemented.

The story itself doesn’t get interesting until the final chapter. There isn’t much story here at all. I wanted to know what this thing was that killed off the entire planet’s population, but you just move from scene to scene falling around trying to escape each section. It’s a poorly paced-story that seemed more like an afterthought. Jacob himself is well-acted, but we know nothing about him nor did I care one bit about his character. Dani is the other main character and I cared about her just as much. The game isn’t long enough or has enough story to tell us anything worthwhile. There’s no care in world-building through visuals like Dead Space did. You just move through corridor after corridor killing enemies that pop up and that’s it.

The visuals might be really good, but the performance is awful. Even after half a dozen patches, AMD FSR2 is broken, ray-tracing cuts the frame rate in half even on a 3xxx series card. There are tons of stuttering from poor shader optimization as well even months after release. Despite the nice visuals, they aren’t taken advantage of due to 90% of the game just being in cramped corridors. Overall, The Callisto Protocol is a colossal disappointment trying to copy Dead Space to a tee and failing to capture anything that made that game stand out or become the icon it is today. The monster designs are neat, the visuals are good, and the story’s premise is good. That’s about it.

The Last of Us Part II

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 03/16/2023
Posted in: PlayStation 4, Sony Consoles. Leave a comment

Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Developer: Naughty Dog

Release Date: 06/19/2020


Available Exclusively On

The Last of Us is one of gaming’s best-told stories. Naughty Dog’s original IP came out 7 years prior to this game’s release, and many thought we would never see the sequel. The original game ended on a cliffhanger. Joel took Ellie out of that hospital and “rescued” her for his own selfish purposes. Did he doom all of mankind from a cure? Will Ellie ever find out what he really did? Those questions play a back seat in what is probably one of the best revenge stories I’ve seen in a single-player game.

The story is the best part of this entire game outside of the visuals and voice acting. There is so much packed into this 20-hour game that despite it taking place only over the course of three days (for the bulk of the game anyways) it’s almost twice as long as the first game. We finally get to see what life is like for humanity thanks to the four-year gap from the last game. Ellie is now of age, has love interests, and life seems to be going well until a shocking tragedy occurs that causes Ellie to seek blood-searing revenge. Risking her life, relationships, and mental well-being by tracking someone across the country and spending three days in Seattle to hunt this person down. We get the perspective of Ellie during the first third of the game and Abby during the second third of the game. Abby is a great character who has just as much depth as Joel or Ellie, and I love that the story doesn’t stick with the tried and true cliche of a good guy and a bad guy. The game shows that anyone can be the bad guy if you look at them from a different angle and vice versa. The Last of Us’ story is bout survival. Not good vs. evil and I love that so much.

Having lived in the Seattle suburbs for the last four years I was excited to see where I live to take place in a game, but it’s not completely accurate. There are no real-life building names or anything like that. It’s more the overall Pacific Northwest aesthetic than anything super accurate. The only distinct thing about the recreation is highway numbers, street names, the Space Needle, Pike’s Place Aquarium, and the Ferris wheel. There’s also a lot of rain and green which the PNW is famous for. The beginning of the game takes place in Jackson, Wyoming which is another area I grew up as a kid. Not Jackson, but Casper which is mentioned in the game. I spent most of my life south of Santa Barbara where the last couple of hours take place in the game. Ventura to be exact, and it’s pretty crazy that all three areas I grew up or lived in are in the game. The change of settings and scenery is really nice, however, Seattle does get old after a while as you revisit some of the same areas multiple times.

A couple of new factions are introduced in the game. The Washington Liberty Front, The Rattlers, and Scars are a cult refusing to use old-world tech. You befriend new people and run across a lot more. People die and tragedy hits nearly everyone around you. I don’t want to talk too many specifics on the story and spoil everything, but it is insanely detailed and it makes you keep playing. When it comes to infected there aren’t any new enemies introduced outside of a new crazy boss character, but that’s okay really. They do play a smaller role in this game as the story is more about human vs human now that we’ve cleared out a good amount of infected in areas that have been settled.

Sadly, outside of the story and characters not much else is new gameplay-wise. It’s almost the exact same game. Stealth still isn’t the best. Enemies seem to randomly walk around and it’s nearly impossible to stealth kill everyone in every section. There are some new weapons that are exclusive to Abby and Ellie. Hunting pistol, crossbow, sub-machine gun, double-barrel shotgun, and many more. We get to use trip mines and pipe bombs as well. There’s more to craft such as silencers for your pistol, arrows, explosive ammo, and many more. The entire weapon and crafting system was expanded a lot as well as upgrade branches which are only found in hidden training manuals sadly. If you miss these you miss out on upgrade paths. You can still find workbenches and upgrade weapons, but parts are more scarce and harder to find this time around.

There are still many quick-time events during scripted scenes such as mashing the square button, holding triangle to open doors, and of course, a few on-rail shooting segments which are fun. These are spread pretty far apart so they aren’t abused. I hate to say this, but the game does get repetitive. You just go through beat after beat of either humans or infected and each area plays exactly the same. Try to stealth kill as many as you can, get caught, shoot the rest, scrounge for parts, and move on. This goes on for 20 hours, and while the gameplay itself is good, I’d rather have the stealth be completely cut. Yes, ammo is scarce and there are times when I found more ammo than I could carry, but the shooting is insanely good. I’d rather shoot more. The gore is awesome, and the death animations and physics are some of the best I’ve ever seen. This includes screams of pain and agony. It’s a very visceral game bound by realism. However, sometimes I just wanted to explore more or just shoot everything and move on. There were some areas that were well-designed and it was satisfying when I could nail everyone silently, but it rarely happened.

I highly recommend playing this on a PS4 Pro or mostly the PS5. I played this on PS5 only and it looks amazing at 60FPS. I can’t imagine playing this sub-30FPS on a base model PS4. With this being the last Sony exclusive on PS4 it looks stunning. Almost as good as The Last of Us Part I on PS5. There are some spots of ugly textures and the textures in the far distance look pretty ugly, but everything up close looks so good. The facial animations, motion capture, and everything else are amazingly detailed. There is so much content packed into this game that you will walk away satisfied.

Overall, The Last of Us Part II tells a controversial yet compelling story with likable new characters and challenges the typical storytelling tropes of good vs evil with perspective. There are plenty of new weapons, upgrades, and items to craft, but it’s exactly the same as the last game otherwise. With the extended length area after area of killing enemies gets old and stealth still isn’t the greatest. I do love the visuals, but Seattle does get old after a while due to playing it twice over with another character. This is easily one of the best single-player games ever made and is a masterpiece in storytelling.

Microsoft Xbox Series X|S Wireless Controller

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 03/12/2023
Posted in: Android, Hardware, iOS, Linux, Mac, Microsoft Consoles, Mobile Reviews, PC Reviews, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S. Leave a comment

Microsoft isn’t someone to mess with when it comes to controllers. Sure, the original Duke is lauded as one of the worst controllers ever made, and it has its fans, but the Xbox S controller really changed things up. Not to mention their analog stick orientation which is copied to this day by even Nintendo. The Xbox controller made built-in headset plugs a thing too. The Xbox 360 controller was considered the best controller ever made at the time. The ergonomics were fantastic and the later improved rotating D-Pad was a huge plus. The Xbox One controller only made things better with bumper button rumble, and just overall improved ergonomics and build quality. Microsoft messes the least amount with their controllers. They just like making it feel good and work. They also have a battery fetish that a lot of people don’t care for.

Fast forward to today and we have Microsoft’s next-generation controller. It’s probably the least changed compared to other companies, but it continues its design DNA. The ergonomics are slightly tweaked still, the built quality feels even better, and they took the idea of the rotating D-pad and the D-pad from their Elite controllers and made it standard. Xbox has the best D-pad out of all three companies. The bowl-shaped D-pad works so well with fighting games as it feels almost like an arcade stick. It’s very clicky and detents in the right spots. You can roll your thumb around for those quarter-circle moves with ease.

The trigger texture is also improved and feels very bumpy and gritty. The haptic feedback hasn’t changed either, but I guess that’s okay. It’s a stark contrast to Sony’s fantastic DuelSense controller. There isn’t much tech packed into this controller either. It’s probably the most basic controller available right now, but many gamers prefer that. You still get a headset input at the bottom and that’s about it. This feels like the Xbox One 1.5 update rather than a next-gen controller. There is an added share button in the center with Microsoft taking notes from Sony from the DualShock 4 controller. This makes sense with streaming and social media has blown up since the Xbox One debuted. The controller does have a USB-C port just like the DualSense so I applaud Microsoft for not making me get out the USB micro.

You still get your Bluetooth functionality, and they are still using AA batteries. Some praise this as that means this controller will always work and you won’t need to get a battery in a few years and tear it apart. Some hate it saying it’s not very modern of them to do. You can get rechargeable AA which I have been doing since the Xbox 360 era so there’s no need to whine.

Overall, the Xbox Series X|S controller is the least changed, but it still works. Microsoft is the poster child for “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” USB-C is nice with the added texture to the bumpers and triggers, but the biggest change is the D-pad. It just feels great. If you liked the Xbox controller up until now then you won’t be disappointed.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 03/08/2023
Posted in: PlayStation 5, Sony Consoles. Leave a comment

Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Developer: Insomniac Games

Release Date: 06/11/2021


Available Exclusively On

It’s good to see Sony’s classic franchises being brought back. After the original game’s remake, I knew something was coming along and I was right! We get a brand new next-gen exclusive Ratchet & Clank game without the baggage of the PS4 holding it down. The franchise returns to its familiar roots which are both good and bad and I’ll explain why.

This time around Ratchet is finally wanting to find other Lombaxes in other dimensions. They get the idea of using the Dimensionator, but it’s taken by Dr. Nefarious. Yeah, I was a little happy to see him return and a little disappointed that we didn’t get an original villain for this game. Nefarious is funny and all, but I wanted to see someone new. We only get a couple of new characters here, but we finally get a new Lombax! Rivet is a fantastic female character with a great voice actress and she has just as much nuance and personality as Ratchet has. I would love to see her stay and even get her own spin-off. The other main character introduced is Clank’s interdimensional counterpart Kit who is a female robot.

Sadly, like all the previous games the story isn’t all that deep and plays out like a Saturday morning cartoon. There’s no real back story to anyone, and we just get the moment-to-moment action for the present time and that’s it. It’s a pretty shallow story with Kit and Rivet’s backgrounds not really being told or talked about. This has always been an issue with the series’ stories and I wish they would change things up in that regard. The series’ main beat of going from planet to planet and whacking away at the same few enemies haven’t changed either. There are about 9 planets in total with some collectibles you can get for trophies, unlockables, and galleries. If you played any single game in the series this one will be familiar.

There are some puzzle areas thrown in that Clank is usually used for. These meta-dimension puzzles see you trying to get mini Clanks running on the correct path to unlock a door. There are four different kinds of orbs that can manipulate the Clanks and various platforms. You can speed things up, slow down, weigh them down, or make them lighter. They aren’t super challenging, but still kind of fun and break up the shooting. Another new mini-game is the Glitch sequences. You play as a spider-bot that goes inside a computer that can shoot at things. These play like the regular Ratchet/Rivet segments, but there’s no platforming as you have to stay on the ground. They aren’t super exciting, but they break up the pace. There are new vehicle elements added such as rocket boots. You can skate around and boost at will as some planets have large open maps, but they are far from the open world. The exploration is mostly for getting collectibles.

The main show is the weapons as that is what Ratchet & Clank was always famous for. Yes, there are over a dozen weapons here that are different and unique than any other game. The DualSense controller is utilized well here for secondary fire. You can soft press to “ready” a weapon that used to be the primary fire and the secondary is a full press of the trigger. The haptic triggers are used better here than any other PS5 I have played so far. That also includes the new rumble feature. You can “feel” every weapon and it really adds to the game’s experience. However, I did feel they went a little too heavy on the glove weapons. Some weapons feel more like gimmicks than not. I wound up sticking to about a half-dozen go-to weapons. I found there wasn’t a good balance this time around like there usually is. You need to switch weapons based off of your needs. Close-quarters weapons such as the Executioner which is like a shotgun. There are a couple of weapons like this. And then you have area-of-effect splash damage weapons like the Warmonger and Houndrill. There are some passive weapons that do damage over time or stun enemies only and don’t do any damage.

The enemies are pretty repetitive this time around. You get the same 6 red robots and then the occasional animal type thrown in. They repeat a lot and don’t really have different defenses so you can usually just blast them all as they come. There are frequent boss fights, but many repeat so they can get old kind of fast. I felt the enemies weren’t as inventive this time around and it shows as they bring back some older enemies from the first game. I just feel the weapon and enemy design was a bit off this time around and just not as creative, but far from bad or ruined. I do want to mention that the level layout is also the same as before. Swing from orbs, jumping around, smashing boxes for bolts, and using them to buy weapons and upgrade them. Using the levels them up which unlocks more upgrades and you can level up yourself which increases your health. While this formula is tried and true it can feel old to long-time players, and if you didn’t like the series before this game won’t change your mind.

There are some great cinematic scripted events, and the pacing is well done. There’s something satisfying about this series that makes it feel like a classic PlayStation game. They did get that magic down pat, but if this is a new trilogy I hope they have more in store for the sequel. Visually this is one of the best next-gen games to date. With performance RT at 60FPS, the game looks fantastic. There are the usual VRR options and you can play in full 4K 30FPS, but a game like this needs to play at 60FPS. The game just looks amazing, and the team has been able to do what they really want. Comparing this game to the first on PS2 is like a whole new experience.

Overall, Rift Apart takes the typical Ratchet & Clank formula and brings it to the next gen with little change or fluff. There are a couple of mini-game segments to mix things up, the characters and voice acting are spot on and the humor is there despite not being fully pushed this time around. I wish we got a new villain, and Rivet and Kit aren’t explored enough. The story itself is also a very Saturday morning cartoon with little depth. The weapons are neat, but not well-balanced and overall the old Ratchet formula feels a bit stale here despite being perfect.

Nintendo Game Boy Advance – 22 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 03/04/2023
Posted in: Game Boy Advance, Hardware, Nintendo, Nintendo Consoles. Leave a comment

Release Date: 06/11/2001

Colors: Red, Clear Orange/Black, Platinum, White, Gold, Arctic, Orange, Fushcia, Glacier, Indigo

MSRP: $99.99

This is probably the most iconic and memorable handheld system for anyone over the age of 25 today. The Game Boy Advance was an unstoppable juggernaut of a system and one of the most anticipated in video game history. It sold like gangbusters and Nintendo couldn’t keep up in the beginning. The first Nintendo handheld with a horizontal orientation and their first 16-bit handheld system that could create SNES quality titles, and boy did it. The Game Boy Advance has one of the most beloved and expansive handheld libraries out there. It’s also a good middle point of being playable today without any hardware mods.

So, let’s address the elephant in the room. There’s still no backlight on the screen. This was largely criticized back in the day and for a 21st-century handheld, mostly unacceptable. While the LCD is clear and crisp you still need a bright light to see anything. Thankfully many people still held onto their worm lights and got good at hiding under blankets at night by this point. Outside of that, I would say that’s the worst thing about the system.

When it comes to power the GBA delivered. It could re-create SNES-style 2D games and could do rudimentary 3D games which weren’t really seen until later on in its life. The added shoulder buttons helped with the ergonomics and allowed deeper gameplay. We still didn’t get much in I/O outside of the usual Link Cable, and the infrared was gone with this system. Overall, the system feels good in the hands. The slightly rounded back helps fill out your palms and reaching around to the shoulder buttons makes the system sit well in the hands. It’s a great feeling system and many prefer this to other re-releases of the GBA.

In today’s age, the best thing you can do is upgrade the GBA to a modern LCD. It’s a drop-in mod and pretty easy to do, but there are so many mods for this system. Amplifier boards, USB-C upgrades, shells, buttons, silicone pads, lenses, you name it. Many people run shops dedicated to modded GBAs and they can be quite beautiful. I have a nearly one-of-a-kind mod myself. The person who made mine no longer runs a shop and UV printed his own shells. Some people even add speed hacks via a hardware switch too. It’s an amazing system to customize.

We all judge these older systems on their libraries and the GBA is one of the best, some might say the best handheld library to date. While there was a lot of kiddie shovelware, there is something here from every genre including first-person shooters. We got Doom ports, many SNES ports, and games from many favorite franchises like Final Fantasy, Mortal Kombat, Tekken, Pokemon, Mario, Prince of Persia, Tetris, Lord of the Rings, and many more. This was an era where many console games were better on the GBA because developers were forced to redo the game and think outside of the box. Some terrible console games wound up having great GBA ports in the end. There’s something here for everyone. There are hundreds of games to choose from and many are quite good.

Overall, the GBA is a fantastic and iconic piece of hardware. While the internals isn’t impressive today, having a portable SNES was something everyone dreamed of. The GBA library is what most people remember over the hardware anyways. Many people’s childhoods are wrapped around this system. While I never had the original model growing up (my parents couldn’t afford one) I still saw people with them and envied them for it. I love my GBA today and play it at least once a week.

The Last of Us Part I

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 03/03/2023
Posted in: PC Reviews, PlayStation 5, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Unknown, Steam Deck Verification. Leave a comment

Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment

Developer: Naughty Dog

Release Date: 09/02/2022


Also Available On

I played the original game back when it was released and it really left an impact on the gaming world as a whole. The characters were incredibly memorable, the acting was otherworldly, and the setting Naughty Dog created was just barely scratched. It was one of the last Sony exclusives for the PS3 and was an excellent send-off for the system. It pushed the system to its limits and sometimes it showed a little too much. The game was later remastered for PS4, and while I own it, I never got past the second chapter. I’m glad I didn’t as I might not have bothered with this remake.

The largest difference here is the visuals. They are clearly made using The Last of Us II engine and everything looks next-gen. Compared to the PS3 it’s like night and day. Subtle facial expressions, eye movements, and emotions come across the characters like never before. High-res textures, fantastic lighting, HDR and 4K support, and much more. This is a next-gen treat if there was one. There are some quality-of-life improvements such as controls, animations, loot, and weapon balancing, and fantastic use of the DualSense controller. Let me tell you, this was my first experience with the controller and it felt so good. It’s hard to go back to shooters without this function enabled. Weapons cause the triggers to bounce and recoil physically affecting the way you shoot. Arrows being drawn have a lot of tension depending on what character you’re using. It’s incredibly immersive.

Outside of the remake stuff and next-gen touches, the game is exactly the same. We get the Left Behind DLC thrown in as well which is nice. There are a lot of extras such as interviews, behind-the-scenes videos, skins, models, concept art, and filters. Most of it is the same. There are a ton of collectibles in the game that can unlock trophies. I used a guide during my playthrough to find them all as they can be hidden pretty well. They give a lot of insight into the day-to-day what’s going on in the world that you don’t see. Similar to the computers in Fallout.

If you haven’t played the game yet then you are in for a treat, as this is one of the best single-player games ever made. However, some of the flaws of the game still carry over. For starters, the actual world that you’re in isn’t explored enough. Location wise we get a lot of different settings, abandoned rural neighborhoods, cities, hospitals, shopping malls, schools, and probably every common setting you can think of. What we don’t get our stories within this world that you can see or hear. You don’t come across a lot of people in this game and when you do they are part of the main story. Your entire goal is to get Ellie to the Fireflies’ base for a specific reason that I won’t spoil. Sadly, there’s not much in between. There is a seemingly pointless second act in which you are captured by a group of people that only seems to be filler. They don’t impact the overall main story but just feel like an unnecessary obstacle to get through.

The combat itself is great in terms of shooting. There are a good amount of weapons and you will have a well-balanced loadout from a flamethrower to pistols, shotguns, and bolt-action rifles. There are a few different types of enemies in the game ranging from humans (Hunters) to different levels of cordyceps monsters such as Stalkers, Clickers, and Bloaters. Stealth is a large part of the game, but you don’t have to follow this. It’s best to conserve ammo as you will always barely have enough and usually run out after every encounter until much later in the game when you have a lot of weapons to switch from. Clickers can’t be stealth killed without shivs that can break. You can shoot them with your bow as that’s the only silent weapon you get, but arrows are scarce. It’s best to just avoid these. You need to lightly push up on the analog stick while crouching as they are sensitive to sound. Throwing bricks or bottles to distract them is another good strategy.

These Clicker-focused stealth sections are incredibly intense. The Clickers are some of the best video game monsters ever created. They are iconic. Their signature “clicking” sound is where they get their name from. Surprisingly these encounters aren’t very frequent. You only run into Clickers maybe once per chapter and most are in the first third of the game. As the game progresses you are mostly up against humans and these guys can be killed from behind, but come in large numbers. Stealth in this game is not the greatest. Enemies usually start swarming you all at once and spread out slowly. It requires a lot of patience to either pass everyone or take them all out silently. It’s stupid to just shoot everyone until later in the game when you can spare the ammo.

There are only a couple of boss fights in the game and they are pretty good they take skill and strategy to beat. There are a lot of fun scripted events as well including quite a few well-placed quick-time events. There really aren’t any puzzles in the game outside of figuring out where a specific item in the area you need is. There is nothing cerebral about this game, however. I found the hardest parts of the game were the stealth sections. Upgrading your stats and weapons helps a lot, but you have to be thorough in looting and searching around to find parts. You can craft shivs, smoke bombs, grenades, health kits, and molotovs. These can be done on the fly in your bag, but upgrades require the use of workbenches and there are only about a dozen in the entire game. You also need to find tools to increase your skill level to install better upgrades. Make sure you don’t miss those.

Overall, The Last of Us Part 1 is one of gaming’s greatest single-player games. Ellie and Joel are amazing characters who go through what it means to be human multiple times over. From the intense opening scene to the cliffhanger ending, there’s so much packed in here and it’s done so well. The upgraded visuals and quality-of-life improvements are good enough to justify this as a remake. Some of the story pacing issues still exist and we don’t get to explore or hear more about this post-apocalyptic world. There are plenty of collectibles, and extras and the Left Behind DLC is a nice bonus as well. This is a fantastic remake and should be played by every PlayStation fan.

Mortal Kombat II – 29 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 03/02/2023
Posted in: Game Boy, Game Gear, Nintendo, Retro Consoles, Sega, Sega 32X, Sega Genesis, Sega Master System, Sega Saturn, Super Nintendo. Leave a comment

Publisher: Acclaim Entertainment

Developer: Probe Software

Release Date: 10/27/1994


Also Available On

Mortal Kombat II is considered the best of the 2D games and to another group the best in the entire series. It’s sad how some think the series peaked so early on when it had so much more to offer. Next-generation consoles were here and the series needed to adapt. This game was strung across three different generations. 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit systems. That’s a lot of systems to make a game work on. This would be the last in the series for the original Game Boy. Already 6 years old at this point in time. Sadly, Probe didn’t use a larger cart so we do have some cut content again here.

Thankfully, the gameplay part was fixed. This is by far the best MK game on Game Boy. It’s fast-paced, fluid, and responsive and plays similarly to the console versions. The control scheme is the same as the first game which works. Holding down away and towards plus punch or kick can do sweeps and roundhouses. The visuals have also improved with larger sprites on screen. Fatalities are intact as well as Babalities, however, Friendships were stripped. We still get a stage fatality on Kombat Tomb, but many stages were still stripped. We get The Pitt II, but no stage fatality there which makes no sense. We also get Goro’s Lair again, but it’s just a solid wall of gray bricks. Horray? Yeah, the stages suck here.

Also gone is Kintaro, but we do get Smoke and Jade as hidden characters which is kind of cool. Sadly, Johnny Cage is also missing from this game as well including Raiden, Kung Lao, and Baraka. Why did Probe cut Johnny Cage every time? While the gameplay was a serious issue in the first game the lack of content is the worst offender here is the awful stages. They were acceptable in the first game, but with a larger cart, they could have fit all of them. There is also still no gore or blood unless you count Candy Bonz bouncing on screen as gore.

Overall, this isn’t the best fighting game on the Game Boy, but it’s the best game in the series on the system. Fighting games just weren’t great in the 8-bit era and it shows here. I’m glad Probe improved the gameplay and made animations feel much faster, but we are only getting a part of a whole game.

Mortal Kombat – 30 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 02/28/2023
Posted in: Game Boy, Game Gear, Nintendo, PC Reviews, Retro Consoles, Sega, Sega CD, Sega Genesis, Sega Master System, Super Nintendo. Leave a comment

Publisher: Acclaim Entertainment

Developer: Probe Software

Release Date: 09/1993


Also Available On

This is my favorite video game of all time. Hands down. While later games in the series are better and have more depth, the first game is just so raw and visceral. It had a weight to the fighting that other games didn’t have while still feeling fluid and well-balanced. This was translated well to home consoles on the Genesis, SNES, and even MS-DOS despite their own flaws. Even the Game Gear version did well. However, I don’t know what I’m seeing on the Game Boy. I don’t think it’s the lack of power in the system as the Master System and Game Gear versions are 8-bit and still play really well. The Game Boy version is just so bad. I can look past the visuals. They look pretty okay despite being a monochrome color. What isn’t excusable is the cut character. Johnny Cage isn’t present at all. Why bother if you can’t include the already small roster?

That’s not the worst part. The controls are also forgivable as the Game Gear and Master System also only have two buttons to work with and they manage. Holding away or towards plus the punch or kick button will do things like roundhouse kicks or sweeps. The special moves are also intact including the fatalities. There are also many cut stages. We only get The Pit, The Courtyard, and Goro’s Lair. All of the stages could have been included I’m sure. This is only a 256kb game which is unacceptable when 8MB cartridges were available. They could have put all of the content on here. But, again that’s not the worst part about the game.

It’s just downright unplayable. The characters feel like they’re fighting in molasses, animations take 2-3 seconds to complete, and there’s just a serious delay in everything. The health bars are terribly done, there’s no blood, no gore, and no Test-Your-Might either. The game is severely butchered and cut back for no reason. The manual is more interesting than the game itself. It’s written in the form of a comic book with great illustrations. That’s pretty sad.

There’s almost no redeeming value in this game other than for collectors. There are much better versions let alone 8-bit versions out there. This is by far the worst version of the game ever made, and I feel bad for anyone who paid full price for this game in the day. Maybe a Game Boy Color version could have come around and done better, but it never happened. While the game looks the part, and the character sprites are decent, the sluggish and unresponsive gameplay just doesn’t work. It’s too bad because the control layout works fine and is used on other 8-bit systems as well. I can only recommend this is pure curiosity and nothing more.

Sega Game Gear – 32 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 02/25/2023
Posted in: Game Gear, Hardware, Retro Consoles, Sega. Leave a comment

Release Date: 04/1991

Colors: Black, Red, Blue, White, Yellow, Coca-Cola

MSRP: $149.99

The Game Gear was a system that was revolutionary at the time and really tried to do some brave stuff compared to the Game Boy. First off, it was competing with the Game Boy. Sega really thought they could deliver a different system to appeal to their already hardcore audience and they kind of did. Sega succeeded in making a good handheld system, but with many flaws and some that the Game Boy didn’t have to deal with.

First off, the handheld’s orientation is what handhelds would eventually end up becoming. The horizontal length that Atari set as standard with the Lynx, Sega took off with and it just became the standard. Sega’s ‘tude branding leaked out onto the Game Gear and their leading IPs pushed the system. Sonic the Hedgehog was great on the handheld as well as other Sega DNA-style games. Sonic Pinball, Streets of Rage, Ax Battler, The Lion King, and many others. This felt like a Sega handheld. Sadly, it was 8-bit and not 16-bit like its older brother. Despite coming out two years after the Game Boy the only leading tech they had was a backlit screen, and barely at that.

The Game Gear screen is notoriously bad. While it is backlit it’s also blurry and just doesn’t look that great. You still need to be in a dimly lit room, but you can at least see the screen. Props to Sega for beating out Nintendo on that front. Because of this, the system chewed through 6 AA batteries. Yeah, I’m not joking. The battery life was maybe 4 hours all because of this screen. The internal hardware was the same as the Sega Master System so it was competing for that 8-bit handheld crown. It’s nothing technically impressive outside of that screen, and those with bigger hands will appreciate the chonkiness of this beast.

In today land, the Game Gear is a much harder system to use and play as it has leaky capacitors which usually destroy the sound. You will find many Game Gears with low volume issues and many people will just chuck these. You can also install a McWill LCD mod, but these aren’t drop-in and are much more expensive than Game Boy drop-in LCDs. There is a new mod by retrosix that uses a new screen PCB with a drop in LCD but still isn’t a drop solution. However, just like any older handheld, this is a must-have mod at minimum for playing a Game Gear today.

We judge older systems based on their library and the Game Gear has a surprisingly robust library for those who like the Sega DNA from the 90s. Games like Sonic the Hedgehog, Mortal Kombat, Paperboy, The Simpsons, Ax Battler, Gunstar Heroes, Puyo Puyo, Streets of Rage, Wonder Boy, Castle of Illusion, Ristar, and many more may sound familiar to you. If you love the Master System or Genesis then this handheld is a must-have for you. If you don’t care for those systems you aren’t going to find much difference here in handheld form. Sega really mushed the Game Gear as a portable console experience rather than a separate handheld experience like Nintendo did. The games sound and play really well and any fan of Sega couldn’t ask for anything better in portable form.

With that said, the system has a lot of faults including full-on hardware faults that we suffer from today. Unlike the Game Boys, you can still enjoy those today without any mods, but the Game Gear really needs a screen upgrade. That CFL tube in the system drains batteries and you actually improve battery life with a new modern upgrade. There were various accessories such as battery packs and TV tuners for the system, but most of those are obsolete these days and won’t work. There are also two different models of the Game Gear. The original model from Sega and then a budget release from Majesco. These models have rounder front shells and make modding the system more difficult.