Dark Seed II – 29 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 05/20/2024
Posted in: Mac, PC Reviews, PlayStation (PS1), Retro Consoles, Sega, Sega Saturn, Sony. 1 Comment

Publisher: Cyberdreams

Developer: Cyberdreams

Release Date: 11/30/1995


Available On

The marketing, box art, and even screenshots are quite misleading for the type of game this is. Even the fantastic artwork doesn’t accurately convey the tone of the game. The first game was a chaotic combination of trial and error, resulting in its incredibly short duration. The second game follows more linear and traditional point-and-click adventure gameplay with digitized scenes and full voice acting. While the voice acting isn’t half bad, the sprites could have used a few more animations and don’t mash well with the H.R. Giger art style of the Darkworld. 

Dark Seed II focuses mostly on a murder mystery. You play as Mike Dawson, who is recovering from the events of the first game. The local sheriff has charged you as the prime suspect after the murder of your high school sweetheart, Rita. You then wander around various locations in town, talking to people trying to move the story along, and this is where the game really falls apart. Like most point-and-click adventures of the time, the game is very obtuse; there aren’t any puzzles, but knowing what items to pick up and where is a real chore. The first game had issues with objects blending into the background, but in this game, you just wouldn’t know where to start. I had to play this game with a full guide, or I would have spent hours wandering around, not knowing what to do or where to go. The lack of a button or other mechanism to access the map makes the significant amount of backtracking even worse. To get to the map, you must walk back to the edge of the area, slow walking speed and all.

Once you get to the Darkworld, things get a little more interesting. The artwork is fantastic, and it’s a shame the low-resolution visuals don’t do it justice. The voice acting didn’t mesh well with the characters in this world, which put me off. They are meant to represent people in the real world, but come on. Why is there a strange statue of a gargoyle that Giger created speaking with a silly New York accent? It just doesn’t sit right tonally. I still loved the bizarre architecture and surreal atmosphere that the Darkworld gave, but the repetitive music, sound effects, and half-assed animations just don’t do any of this justice.

There isn’t much gameplay. You can change your action icon with the right mouse button and have a pop-up inventory, but you won’t be using it much. Most of the game involves walking back and forth and talking to people. While the overarching murder mystery is rather interesting and the ending was a surprise, I wanted more of the in-between stuff. There was a significant opportunity to bring the Darkworld to life, and even in the mid-90s, this could have been feasible. There was a hint of this happening when you converse with certain creatures; they mention the Darkworld briefly, but the worldbuilding simply lacks depth. The adventure titles of that era, like The 11th Hour, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, Full Throttle, and others, didn’t follow the same pattern. Many other games did this just fine, without the macabre legacy of Giger himself lending a hand to the art department. 

Without the artwork, this would be a ho-hum adventure title. While there have been many improvements over the original title, I would still like to see more Darkworld architecture. I wanted more time spent here. Yes, there is more of the dark world. There are more screens, buildings, and creatures in the Darkworld than in other adventure titles of the time. There is a layer of cheese that you just can’t look past when it comes to certain events or scenes in the game, and it made me roll my eyes or frown. H.R. Giger’s art is my favorite of all time. There’s so much that could be explored here, but instead we get an obtuse, backtrack-heavy game with an interesting murder mystery and the best parts taking the backseat.

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Keyboard & Mouse

Hylics – 9 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 05/11/2024
Posted in: PC Reviews, Steam Deck Verification, Steam Deck Verified. Leave a comment

Publisher: Mason Lindroth

Developer: Mason Lindroth

Release Date: 10/02/2015


Available Exclusively On

To say Hylics isn’t an interactive piece of art is an understatement. I will get more into the visuals later, but there’s clear inspiration here from Earthbound. There’s not much of a story, and there doesn’t need to be one, because the world is a character itself. There is no possible way to make heads or tails of the world, so it makes sense that the story wouldn’t. There are four characters in your party, and you do go around fighting in dungeons, beating up bosses, and collecting loot, but in a less traditional fashion.

You start out with the character Wayne. There’s not much to say about Wayne. We get no backstory or epic dialog because we don’t need it. You start out inside your house, and you slowly introduce yourself to gameplay mechanics. Notice I said, “Introduce yourself.” There’s no tutorial or even any dialog messages stating anything is happening. I highly recommend playing this the first time with a guide, as some areas can be a little cryptic for how small of a world this game is. You have your typical RPG fight mechanics. You take turns with the enemies; you can attack or cast special attacks, run away, guard, etc. That’s all standard so far. You can also equip armor, weapons, accessories, etc. That’s about as standard as it gets. Everything else is either similar to Earthbound or just plain weird.

The entire game is finite. Every enemy’s death is permanent, as they are placed physically in the game world. There are no random encounters here. When enemies die, they are represented as a pile of flesh and bones on the ground. Most bosses are also optional. This game takes a rogue-lite approach to the RPG foundation by encouraging you to die. When you die, you go to the afterlife, which is a small building with a surrounding ocean of red. You can heal here and turn in flesh meat, which increases your hit points. This is the only way to “level up,” and that’s in the loosest sense of the word. Enemeis drops lots of cash, items, and meat, and this meat is needed to get further in the game. However, starting out is rough. You die a lot, and you usually can’t kill a single enemy part alone. It’s important to get the second party member quickly before engaging in battle.

That’s where the guide is needed. That is not a conventional way to play a game. Thankfully, the game is so short that you can get your first party member in 20 minutes. There is a world map that has different locations on it. There are a few main dungeons with bosses in them, but they aren’t shown or given to the player as typical bosses. They are just another enemy on screen, or you need to interact with them to start the battle. There is a single town in the whole game that has a few vendors. You can buy armor, accessories, items, and so forth. Items like frozen burritos can be microwaved from projectile weapons into warm burritos, which revive an ally. Hot dogs give full health, and other weird and alien items will do other things. 

You can learn new special moves by finding TVs. The one small issue here is that you need to revisit every TV to give each party member the ability. Some do huge attack damage, and they are pretty much required to beat the final boss, while others can be used for defensive purposes like protecting from blind status or poison. Attacks are 1:1 to your mightiness power given by weapons. It’s important to seek out the most powerful weapons that are usually hidden in chests or locked behind something, such as needing to die three times or using dynamite to blow up a wall. There aren’t many locations like this, but they are important. 

There are other weird quirks that you would never know are things, such as the fact that the character Somsnosa, who is the strongest, can only equip a single weapon and can pick up bugs found in areas to increase her might. These are weird-shaped creatures that are all white and are found in dungeons or safe zones. You can also run across merchants who offer a one-time type of food that is used on a specific animal back at Wayne’s house to acquire their skull for a shield. That would be completely missed without a walkthrough. These kinds of things are also present in games like Earthbound and either require you to stumble across them by accident or have a lot of abstract thinking going on. 

Outside of the gameplay, the game’s most impressive feature are the visuals. They have avant-garde status in surrealism. They mesmerize, question, and barely represent anything remotely human or recognizable on our planet. The game has a Toejam & Earl vibe mixed with Earthbound. That’s the sense I got, but there’s not a single game in existence that looks or sounds like this one. Strange alien noises, weird haunting ambient music—none of it is scary or horror-themed. The game is so odd that it will make you feel lonely and empty just playing it. The world itself is a character, and the poetic dialog (the little there is) and Shakeperian story (if you can call it a story) don’t matter. It’s not that I cared, but I just didn’t need it. Just seeing these characters on screen, running across the few NPCs, and fighting the bosses was enough to keep my mouth shut. I just took in the fantastic visuals and played.

This goes for animations too. The game has a very claymation look and feel to it. The first-person combat animations feature strange hand gestures, alien symbols, and an odd sense of emptiness. There is nothing typical or trope-like about this game. Your brain wants to constantly categorize, put it in a box, or rationalize with the visuals. All you can do is accept what’s there and keep pushing on. The game can be finished almost 100% within 4-5 hours. Once you get three party members, the game becomes more enjoyable, and you quickly gain power where small enemies are pushovers. It’s just bosses you have to focus on. I wish you didn’t need to hold off on your consumable leveling up items once you have all the party members. The finite supply in the world makes this a requirement. But the satisfaction of being level 63 and having 5,000 HP at the end of the game allows for getting 100%.

All in all, Hylics is an insane piece of interactive art. There is nothing like it out there, and while the cryptic RPG elements feel dated and the game is difficult to get going, you will have a blast with it and not want to put the game down.

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Isolomus

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 05/10/2024
Posted in: Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, Steam Deck Unknown, Steam Deck Verification, Switch. Leave a comment

Publisher: Michael Rfdshir

Developer: Michael Rfdshir

Release Date: 12/04/2020


Available On

Surrealism in gaming is fascinating to me. It’s one thing to see a painting or photo, but to see it moving and interacting with it is a whole new scale. In my bottomless hunger for the surreal, dreamlike, and psychological in gaming, Isolomus fits a few of these categories. This claymation interactive art exhibit is not for those looking for a full-on game, puzzles, or even a story. There is a lot the player needs to interpret or just be square with not having an answer to. This is a game that can be completed 100% in less than an hour. My interpretation of the game is that it represents humans being slaves to our daily schedules and needs. I will leave it at that.

Each “cycle” of the game starts out the exact same, and there are two different endings. You just start clicking on objects on the screen. Squishing green men into blobs and then watching the “hub” of the day and night cycle as a man does a task you select. This can be eating, using a computer, looking out a window, brushing your teeth, etc. Each task is shown in full during the first cycle, and then you sleep. Once you sleep, you can choose two different doors. Once you start the next cycle, each activity is an interactive scene. I don’t want to spoil them too much, but you need to figure out how to advance the scene by interacting with their objects in a certain manner. Each scene has two different endings, and how you interact determines that ending.

The entire game barely represents anything human or discernible to the human eye. Strange shapes, sounds, and the eerie, dreamlike soundtrack playing in the background will keep you glued to the screen just to see what whacky thing comes next. The animations are uncanny, inhuman, and downright bizarre, but that’s what I love about this game, if you can even call it that. The gameplay here isn’t much, but you still need to be curious and find new ways to interact with the game, which I found a lot of fun.

There is no dialog in the game or even any written text. Just grunts, sounds, and ambient music. Sometimes this is just what the doctor ordered. You can vibe out and relax in a game like this that doesn’t require any skill to even interpret a story. This is a game that will stick with you. Maybe even more than a 50-hour-long AAA game. It’s so strange and surreal that you will need to talk about it with somebody just to make sense of it all. Isolomus may not get the players or attention it deserves, but for $1, what more can you ask for? You can’t buy anything for $1 anymore.

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Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 05/03/2024
Posted in: Microsoft Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 5, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Playable, Steam Deck Verification, Xbox Series X|S. Leave a comment

Publisher: Focus Entertainment

Developer: DONTNOD

Release Date: 02/13/2024


Available On

Back in the mid-2000s, there were many God of War clones, and that trend continues with the 2018 reboot. Banishers is essentially a God of War clone, almost to a T, barrowing many elements such as combat, exploration, storytelling, and the upgrade system. However, there’s a hint of “Eurojank” present that I just can’t shake. While the story, setting, and lore are interesting enough (the key word is “enough”), the game never excels to the heights of the game it’s trying to become.

You play Red Mac, Raith, and Antea Duarte. Lovers who are now separated by the plane of the dead. Banishers are people who go around removing hauntings from people, places, and objects, but they can also pass judgment and execute the living for doing wrong to those who previously lived. It’s an interesting concept, but sadly, the game never goes into more detail about it. How can these people just kill the living based on what the dead say? What are the laws and rules surrounding this? The game also doesn’t go into the background or history of the Banishers. This is something that God of War did well. We need a lot of backstory if we’re going to spend 25+ hours in a game like this. The entire game is just pretty “good,”  but never memorable or amazing. It always just falls below that mark. While I found the world and atmosphere of New Eden fascinating, the way the story and world are unfolded to the player are boring, mundane, or just not interesting. Reading material is pointless and doesn’t add to anything. 

Let’s just start with the combat. Heavy and light attacks make up the basis of combos, but you can switch to Antea in the ghost plane, who has more powerful attacks. Her bar isn’t HP, but an energy meter. Hit decrease this as well as using your attack powers. You can refill this bar by fighting as Red in the real world, but he doesn’t have any special attacks, and this really kept me from creating a strategy or learning how to beat enemies. Red just light and heavy attacks enemies (with a heavy charge attack), and the game tells you Red does more damage to ghosts and Antea does more damage to possessed bodies, but it never really seemed to be effective. You can parry attacks, which the game heavily relies on for more damage, and Red has a gun that you get about 1/4th through the game; it’s a one-shot rifle that requires a reload. This can sometimes do a lot of damage, but the enemies are so boring and uninteresting that there’s no distinguishable feature or stat to build strategies in your head. Ghosts are pretty easy, while anything else can damage sponges. I just couldn’t combo or create a meaningful pattern for defeating enemies, and it made combat one of the least enjoyable parts of the game. It also just feels slightly clunky and sluggish.

The upgrade system feels almost as useless. You get experience for Red and Antea by completing side quests (called hauntings), which grant you additional damage for certain attacks, but I never really got to unlock any new combos or powers. Antea’s three powers are found during the story, so the upgrade tree is just boring, and I never felt powerful enough and couldn’t even use skills to become more powerful. This also bleeds over into the equipment system. Red can equip rifles, blades, outfits, and potion bottles, which increase attributes, but no matter how high they were, I always felt just too weak to really get an edge over the enemies. Antea can equip various accessories to help her attributes, but nothing felt powerful or meaningful.

This leads to the exploration and hunting gameplay loop that’s identical to God of War, but without the enjoyment. Why do I want to hunt chests and haunted objects, fast travel back, and open new paths with new powers if all this equipment feels useless and haunting cases only give me a single esence for the skill tree when it also feels pointless? They are fun at first, and the haunting cases are like mini-murder mysteries you can solve, but they also play out the same way. Some lead to small boss fights, some are just item gathering quests, and they all add to the main story choice (I won’t spoil it) for the ending, but they are all optional. There is a lot of side content here, but I gave up about halfway through because I just didn’t feel any of the rewards were worth it. 

With that said, the game looks pretty good for an Unreal Engine 4 game. There is a lot of detail in the environments; they are varied, and the atmosphere is thick and heavy, but everything just teeters on not quite being enough on every front. The ability to even upgrade equipment doesn’t help make you feel like you’re growing as a player or character. I felt just as weak from the beginning of the game to the end and wound up dying quite a bit. Some side content, like the void walking dungeons, is tedious and boring, and the only redeeming value is exploring the world and picking up all these items and chests. I just wish the rewards were better.

Overall, Banishers has a lot of interesting concepts going for it, and the voice acting is good (the facial animations are very dated). I wanted to know more about this world, but the game just doesn’t give it up. The side content is questionable, the combat is too clunky, and there’s no strategy or really good combo system implemented to make it stand out from the crowd. There aren’t really any puzzles, and the story is predictable towards the end, making you feel like your choices are almost meaningless. I feel like if DONTNOD had another go, they could get a lot more right. As it stands, this feels like a “Eurojank” God of War.

Xbox Series X Controller

Defining a Gamer: Childhood Video Games Through the Years

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/27/2024
Posted in: Blogs. Leave a comment

A lot of us became gamers at an early age, and our taste in what we play now is often unknowingly guided by our parents and social friends. What my kids grow up with today is a stark difference from what I grew up with 25 years ago. I started playing video games unbeknownst to myself at the ripe age of 2 at a cousin’s house when Mortal Kombat was played on the Sega Genesis back in 1992. I have very fuzzy and blurry snippets of Scorpion’s Fatality and seeing this shocking gore that you could control. I was fascinated by the character designs, music, and being able to do things on the TV with a controller. I wanted my own Genesis so badly, but I grew up poor.

My experience is that of a gamer whose parents didn’t have a lot of money, and most of my games were rentals. I usually only had games for myself during Christmas and my birthday, as they are three days apart. This made Christmas time incredibly special to me, as it was the one time of the year I would get games I could call my own. I was always very careful as to what I put on my list, as I knew my parents would go for the cheaper games first. Sometimes I would leave off the cheaper older games in favor of the newer ones. I also never had the latest consoles when they were released. I usually didn’t get one until 3–4 years into the console cycle or when the first significant price drop occurred.

I was one of those kids who never played mainstream games. I didn’t play any Zelda games on my N64, despite having one for a few years. I never played any Mario Party games; I was obsessed with Pokemon, but I never had a Game Boy to play it when I was actually into Pokemon. I missed out on a lot of games people grew up with.

1992-1994

Sega Genesis

This was the first video game system I ever received. After being obsessed with my cousin’s that he had rented, I had to have my own. I had just turned three years old, and I was ready for my first video game console. My mom had bought a brand new Sega Genesis Sonic the Hedgehog 2 bundle from Circuit City, and I remember it died a few days later. Sonic kept freezing constantly, and my mother wasn’t sure what was causing this, so she had it swapped at the store. I remember going with her during this time.

Mortal Kombat

This game remains my favorite video game series of all time. The gameplay wasn’t as fast-paced as Street Fighter II, but it was more grounded, had incredibly memorable characters, and had some fantastic music on the Genesis that I still listen to to this day. It took me years before I figured out how to do a Fatality or learn the blood code, but I played this on repeat for quite a while along with Sonic 2.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2

I never got around to the first game until much later, but this came bundled with my Genesis on Christmas of 1992. The game had just been released a month prior, and the bundle set was hot off the press, and I had one. The color graphics, fast-paced gameplay, and incredible music are things I still love to this day, and no other Sonic game has impressed me as much since. I struggled to ever get past The Chemical Plant Zone, but I still kept playing over and over because of just how fun it was to play and experience.

Ecco the Dolphin

I know that same cousin had this game, but I don’t recall ever owning it. Maybe I did at some point. I only remember jumping up out of the water too high, and all of the fish in the ocean would get sucked up, and it scared me to death as a kid. I was around 3 or 4 when I got around to this game, and I would run up and shut off the Genesis, and my mom said I would cry. I had a major fear of underwater levels for years because of this. I would have had my younger sister beat those levels for me. My digital thalassophobia was very real up until I was a young adult. I never understood how to play this game, and I never got very far. I mostly just swam around and messed about.

Sword of Sodan

My parents would often buy the occasional game at pawn shops, and this was a random pick-up my dad brought home from work one day. He would stop buying from local pawn shops and see what games we could both be interested in. Later on in my teens, I realized this was a highly criticized game, but you can’t deny the atmosphere and dark tone the game had. Sure, the controls were bad and the animations were awful, but the sound effects were pretty eerie. It was also insanely hard. The potion combining was something my dad and I experimented with, and we wrote down every single combo in the game on a notepad. I did eventually finish this game one single time.

The Sega Channel

My mom had picked this up from the local TV service provider, and I was so jazzed. Free games and new ones every week?! This was like a dream come true, but sadly short-lived. I believe I had it for maybe a month during a trial period, and it would end up being too expensive for my parents in the end. I do remember discovering the new games that refreshed one week and hugging my mom, thanking her for the new games, not realizing she didn’t do this at all. I can’t recall a single game I played on that service.

Aladdin

I can’t remember when I got around to this. There was a local grocery store called Smith’s nearby (it’s still there to this day in Casper, Wyoming), and they had a rental section we went to for years for movies and games. Everything came in clear clamshells! I remember the game feeling just like the movie but being incredibly hard. I could never get past the magic carpet ride section through the cave.

The Lion King

I fondly remember the startup song of the game, and this one was also insanely hard. I never got past the level with the giraffes. It looked fantastic and had great animation, but why were these games so stupidly hard?

Wings of Wor

Another game brought home from a pawn shop by my parents I played this game for a bit, but remember, it was really hard, and I never got past the first stage. For years, I could never figure out what this game was until I saw a video on YouTube in my teen years. It’s very dark and has great animation and music, but it was another game added to the list that I gave up on.

1995-1999

Super Nintendo

I recall getting a SNES for Christmas in 1995. I had my Genesis for a few years, and it was time to move on. I got Mortal Kombat, Math Blaster, and Stunt Race FX with it, and of course, the system was used.

Mortal Kombat

I remember being really disappointed with this game. I didn’t realize the game was censored, and I hated the blood being replaced with gray sweat. I did like being able to automatically do the The Pit stage Fatality by just uppercutting the character, but everything else sucked. The music was worse, and it just didn’t feel the same.

Math Blaster

At this point, my mom wanted me to use gaming for learning since we didn’t have a PC. Math Blaster was actually gifted by a family friend. I had a lot of fun with this, but I remember the platforming section being really tough. It got a lot of play from myself and my sister.

Stunt Race FX

I never realized that my SNES was actually rendering a 3D game at the time, but this game blew my mind. All 5 frames per second. Even back then, I remember the game playing very slowly, but the track design was neat, the cars really captured my attention with their goofy eyes, and the music was really catchy. My sister and I played this to death.

Jurassic Park

This was a rental, and I hated it. This was probably the first first-person game I ever played, and it was a confusing mess. My mom took it back the next day.

Bust-A-Move

A game my parents picked up from a pawn shop My mom used to call it bubbles,” and we were all hooked. We would have the team finish the 100 levels by writing down each password. I finally finished the 100th level, beating the grim reaper, and I remember how excited we all were. It’s still one of my mom’s favorite games to this day.

Super Mario World

This was also a rental, and my sister and I were hooked on this game, but it was too long to finish in just three days. We weren’t very good at it and never got too far, but I just remember how fluid the controls were, the colorful visuals, and the catchy music.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island

This was a rental for my sister. She loved how cute Yoshi was, and I just remember how blown away we were by the visuals and art style. It was really hard for us, and we never finished it, but it remains my sister’s favorite platformer to this day.

Mortal Kombat II

I was lucky enough to play MKII on the SNES, the best 16-bit version. The game blew me away, as I never got a chance to play the arcade game. My parents never took us anywhere with arcades, as they were always working and, on their down time, wanted to stay home. I remember seeing posters for this everywhere and having to get my hands on them. When the price came down, we eventually got a used copy. I played it regularly for months and eventually finished it. I remember our landlord’s teenage son coming by during a maintenance repair, and he saw me playing it. I remember him pulling off fatalities, and it blew me away. Little did I know, he probably had a strategy guide or was looking up the codes online. We didn’t have a computer yet.

Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure

Boogerman stood out for obvious reasons. A seven- or eight-year-old can’t resist! This was a rental, and even my mother thought it was hilarious. The weird-looking super-hero and green backdrop cover really got my attention. When I got home with it, I remembered the farts, booger slinging, and throwing toilet plungers. Sadly, I didn’t make it out of the sewer stage before calling it quits.

Lethal Enforcers

This was one of the last SNES games I remember playing. This was another pawn shop pick-up from my dad, and sadly, we couldn’t afford the light gun, so we mastered this game on the controller. The game was well made and had great replay value.

GameBoy

Tetris

Ah, yes. Good ‘ol Tetris. Everyone who owned a Game Boy had this game, as it was a pack-in title. I got a used Game Boy for my seventh or eighth birthday, and I remember the battery cover was slightly melted by a cigarette burn. I honestly don’t remember ever loving the Game Boy itself, but I loved Tetris. This was a system I wasn’t terribly interested in, as the Game Boy Color was already out and my parents couldn’t afford to buy games for it. I didn’t realize how vast the library was until I was much older.

Arcade Classic 3: Galaga/Galaxian

This was a thrift store find, and I remember playing it quite a bit. It was an addictive arcade game and my first exposure to Galaga and Galaxian. It’s not the best version and is rather plain, but I spent many hours on it as a kid. Especially since this was the only other cartridge I ever owned besides Tetris.

Bart Simpson’s Escape from Camp Deadly

I only remember this game due to the traumatic memory attached to it. This was at a dentist office where they had Gameboys you could play to stay distracted. I remember the game being in the prize drawer, and I grabbed it, and the dentist snatched it out of my hand and yelled at me. I remember crying and running, terrified. Why would you put it in there?!

PlayStation

Mortal Kombat 3

This was the game I got with my PS1 for Christmas in 1997 or 1998. I got a used PS1 that my parents picked up from a pawn shop, and it came with a Crash Bandicoot demo disc. I don’t remember playing MK3 all that much, but it was the long box version.

Syphon Filter

This was the first 3D action game I had ever played. It was incredibly confusing when I first rented it from a local grocery store in Casper, Wyoming, called Smith’s (which is still there to this day). I rented a lot of my games from here, as my family just couldn’t afford the $50 a pop. My late stepfather actually got into this with me as well, and over time we learned how to play it and eventually memorized every single enemy placement, weapon creation, and speed run. It’s the single most-replayed PS1 game for me.

Silent Hill

Funny enough, I accidentally rented this because I couldn’t remember the name of Syphon Filter. The cover looked close enough, and when I got it home, I realized it was not it, but the atmosphere, story, and overall creep factor intrigued me. There was absolutely no way I would have finished this as a kid with the insanely obtuse puzzles. Once I got maybe 30 minutes in and found the skinless dogs in the back alley, I screamed and turned the PS1 off. The game was quickly restored.

Mortal Kombat 4

This was one of the few new games I got as a kid. We picked this up from Wal-Mart after realizing we couldn’t burn PS1 games straight from a disc and play them. After some Googling (which was very lean back in the day), we realized you needed a mod chip, which was never going to happen.

Gran Turismo/Gran Turismo 2

These two games made me appreciate and like cars. No, I’m not a car enthusiast, but because of this game, I would identify cars by just their tail lights in the dark. I loved the zen-like feel of the endurance races and just tuning and learning about cars.

Final Fantasy VIII

This was the first ever Final Fantasy game I played. I completely missed out on VII as it didn’t appeal to me at the time (and I also didn’t have the patience). I didn’t end up actually finishing this game completely until a couple of years ago. I never made it past the second disc.

Spyro the Dragon/Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage!

This was one of my most played PS1 games, but I never owned it! It was a frequent rental for my sister and me, and we just loved collecting gems and running around the levels. I don’t think we ever actually completed it.

Nintendo 64

Mortal Kombat Trilogy

I got this one after getting a PS2, but it was one of my most played discs. It was a lot of fun, and I had the N64 cart for the longest time and played that to death as well.

Top Gear Rally

Top Gear was one of the only racing games I played on the N64, and it was a blast. My dad and I played this a lot, and it was a great Christmas gift. I wound up playing this instead of GoldenEye 007, which was returned to the pawn shop my parents bought it from.

Pokemon Stadium

I played this during my short tenure, being obsessed with everything Pokemon. I traded the cards at school, watched the show and movies, and sadly, only ever played this Pokemon game. I didn’t have a Game Boy at the time, so I never got a chance to play the RPGs.

2000-2004

PlayStation

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2

I spent more time in this game than in the first. I never owned it, but it was a frequent rental, and I always saved my best replays to my memory card. I completed this game all the way through each time I rented it.

Syphon Filter 2

I had very fond memories of this game. It was a frequent rental for my dad and me. When we were finally ready to purchase the game, we were on the way to a game store in our local mall. On the way, we had the “birds and the bees” talk. I then remember seeing the game in the display case. It was on his 41st birthday as well. We played this game to death, memorizing every enemy and weapon placement.

Syphon Filter 3

This was the first PlayStation 2 game I ever owned. It’s not a PS2 game. I hear you cry out. Well, my parents could afford to buy a used PS2 when they dropped to $200, but they couldn’t afford a PS2 game to go along with it. I do remember being in Wal-Mart one day, and my dad stopped me and pointed at a display case. I turned around, and Syphon Filter 3 was sitting there in its shiny wrapping. We, of course, had no idea it had come out yet, which was a surprise.

PlayStation 2

Jak II

I never really cared for collect-a-thon games, even as a kid. I couldn’t get into games like Banjo-Kazooie because of this, and that was why I didn’t care for the first Jak game. Jak II was more action-oriented and had a pretty entertaining story. I rented this and finished it over the weekend.

Medal of Honor: Frontline

This was my first experience with a cinematic FPS. I missed out on Allied Assault as I didn’t have a gaming PC, and this was a weekend rental for me. The opening Normandy Beach sequence still stands out in my head today. I wish I had a good sound system as a kid because it blew me away. One of my top gaming childhood memories.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

This game really blew me away. It was a weekend rental and was one of the first ever experiences in an action-adventure game. There was nothing like it at the time, and it paved the way for the genre. I remember asking for it for Christmas the year it was released and never getting it.

Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec

After my obsession with the first two games, it was time to get back onto the saddle. I didn’t end up getting this game until after the Greatest Hits version was released and it was discounted to $20. I played this game to death. Easily close to 100 hours were put into this game. It looks fantastic even to this day.

Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King

I picked this up brand new from K-Mart. I remember playing the demo on my sister’s copy of Final Fantasy XII and loving the characters and setting. I never actually finished this game, as I didn’t realize it took nearly 100 hours to complete, and I got stuck on some sort of royal king-type boss in some ruins. I still want to finish this game one day.

Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance

I honestly lost track of the MK series for a while. After MK4, I had no idea what was going on with it. One day I saw a TV commercial for the game, and my mom got it for me for my 12th birthday that year, along with a T-shirt. I can thank this game and the “Immortal” music video by Adema for getting me further into rock music.

Mortal Kombat: Deception

This was the first video game I had ever pre-ordered! I remember being obsessed with preview content for this game and getting so excited for its release. Especially knowing there was online play. I loved the arena death traps, and the extra content was insane. I spent dozens of hours in this game, and it’s still the best 3D Mortal Kombat game to date.

Grand Theft Auto III

I remember seeing a neighbor kid playing this game, and I was so jealous that my parents couldn’t afford a PS2 yet. I was blown away by the visuals and the open-ended gameplay. When I did finally get a hold of this game, I never finished the story mode. I was too busy having fun to cause destruction.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3

I spent so many hours in this game. A neighborhood kid had a PS2 before I did, and I spent the night staying up all night trying to do the best line in the game. I borrowed it when I got my PS2, and I played this game over and over again. It’s still the best game in the series to date.

Kingdom Hearts

I sadly didn’t get to experience this game until it was a Greatest Hits title, but I did get it brand new and took it home in its shiny cellophane glory. Sadly, the game was too hard for me, and I couldn’t get past the Oogie Boogie boss fight. I plan to finish the latest remaster one day.

The Lord of the Rings: Two Towers/Return of the King

My grandmother took me to see both of these movies on my 12th and 13th birthdays, respectively. I was then in love with the games. They felt just like the movies and were incredibly entertaining, with decent replay value. I only ever finished Return of the King and plan to replay it at some point. It’s been too long.

Killzone

This game made my Christmas of 2004 perfect. I remember hearing all about the “Halo Killer” news leading up to its launch, and being a PS2 fanboy, I had to have it. Being as young as I was, I didn’t know any better about the slowdown and lower visual fidelity. It still looked amazing to me, and I played the campaign twice over that weekend.

SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs

This was the first online PS2 game I ever played. My parents were finally able to get me a network adapter as there was a deep discount at Best Buy. I bought this game off of a kid at school for $10 and was obsessed with the online mode. I never even finished the campaign. Sadly, I couldn’t get into the second game at all and plan to play through the series at some point.

Burnout 3: Takedown

This game was another addition to Killzone for Christmas 2004. I couldn’t stop playing this game, but I remember never going online or finishing the campaign. I mostly loved Crash Mode, and it still remains one of my favorite arcade races to date.

Devil May Cry

I picked this up at a bargain bin price at Game Crazy one day. I never got into the series despite hearing about it, and I felt the game was mostly decent as a teen, but something about it never clicked with me. I do remember finishing the game and being more impressed with DMC3, despite never finishing that game either. I plan to replay this in the more recent HD Collection at some point.

Final Fantasy X

Oh man, this game gave me so much trouble growing up. I first played it as a rental and didn’t realize how long the game would be. Sadly, the disc was heavily scratched, and I couldn’t get past the cutscene that showed the first boss on the ship. I eventually picked it up as a bargain bin purchase and played the hell out of it. I did beat the game after losing my first save once, and I remember getting lost in the story, lore, and characters. I spent over 50 hours trying to finish this game, and it wound up being the first Final Fantasy game I ever finished.

Call of Duty: Finest Hour

This was another game that helped make Christmas 2004 one of the most memorable. I got a lot of new PS2 games, and that was really rare. I remember watching a lot of preview content leading up to the release and always thought the campaign was forgettable, but the online deathmatch mode is something I played quite a bit. It even lasted longer than Killzone for me.

Spider-Man 2

I picked this up after loving the movie, and I spent all of my allowance on it. This game blew me away. It was the first open-world Spider-Man game, and it was just so good to swing around and be Spidey. I played through the story mode twice and still love this game to this day.

2005-2006

PlayStation 2

Area 51

I remember following this in gaming magazines, demo discs, and on the internet. I played the demo several times and just loved the atmosphere, and the guns felt great to use. I picked it up brand new with all of my allowance in tow and played the campaign a couple of times.

Guitar Hero/Guitar Hero II

I was obsessed with this game for a long time. The series in general is fair. I bought every game when it came out up until the third game, and then the series got too stale for me. I had cousins come over just to play the first one, and I loved it so much that it prompted me to want to play a real guitar.

Resident Evil 4

This was one of the few games I was jealous the PS2 never got—until it did! My sister pre-ordered the premium edition, and she was so scared of the game that she gave it to me. The game was just so good and somehow holds up well today. The PS2 version was a graphical downgrade over the GameCube version, but I was happy.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

I was finally able to pick this up used after every media outlet I followed was flooded with content for the entire year. It was one of the games everyone was constantly talking about. I wasn’t into it as much as GTA 3, and I never finished the story mode, but I remember having a lot of fun nonetheless.

Shadow of the Colossus

This was one of the last PS2 games I ever received as a gift. I got it for my 15th birthday and just loved it so much. I played the demo and was hooked. Despite finishing the game and loving every minute of it, I remember the controls being very frustrating and never really understanding the story that much.

Okami

I got this on Christmas of 2005. I followed the game in magazines and news outlets online for such a long time and was so excited for the Celestial Brush mechanic. The game was much longer than I anticipated, but I did eventually finish it. It was incredibly memorable.

God of War

This was one of the last games I saved up for with an allowance. I played the demo, and I don’t quite remember ever being as impressed with a game as I was with this one. This game was special, and I played the story mode twice before putting it down. This series remains one of my favorites to date.

Xbox 360

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter

This was one of the last games I ever got as a Christmas gift before I was working and buying my own things. I got money for my birthday this year, and I knew I had an Xbox 360. That was also the very last console I ever received as a gift from my parents. I wound up measuring the wrapped box, weighing it, and figuring it was a 360. I took my allowance and went to Game Crazy secretly (I was driving with a permit at the time) and bought this and Gears of War. I hid them in my drawer, and a couple of days after Christmas, I pretended I went out and got them. This was one of the best Xbox 360 games I ever played.

Prey

Christmas 2006. What a year! I got the last console I’d ever receive as a gift from my parents, and this was the one game they gifted me with it. I played through the entire campaign in a couple of days and loved it so much. It still remains one of my favorite shooters to date.

Gears of War

Same story as above. This game was one of the most special I ever played growing up. It was the first game that really showed what a next-generation game could look like. It was the first game that looked like what we would be seeing today. The controls, fidelity, story, scope, and raw gameplay. It still remains one of the best shooters ever made, with a wonderfully crafted story. I probably played the campaign 2-3 times before putting it down.

Condemned: Criminal Origins

Again, the same story as above; however, this was a GameFly rental that I timed with Christmas. I remember seeing the tech demo at E3 the previous year, and this was one of the most memorable games of my childhood. The game was insanely scary, and the camera work along with the brutal first-person combat was on another level. These four Xbox 360 games were some of the most memorable gaming moments for me.

Nintendo DS

Metroid Prime: Hunters

This was, sadly, one of the only DS games I ever played in my late teens. I saved up my allowance and finally got a used red DS on eBay for $100. I walked over to my local Game Crazy and picked this up, but I never finished it. I had the PSP at this point, so the DS felt underwhelming in its early stages. I actually got rid of my DS a few months later, and I didn’t get one again until much later.

PSP

Ridge Racer

The PSP was probably one of the biggest moments of my childhood. I had just turned 15 and saved up all of my allowance for six months, starting the previous fall. I remember when the PSP was revealed and losing my absolute mind. I remember doing so much research and talking in forums about it. I remember not being able to really sleep the night before launch as my local Game Crazy didn’t have enough pre-orders to do a midnight launch. My mom drove me there, and I remember being a single penny short on my purchase. I was going to have to run to the car and lose my place in line, but someone behind me gave the cashier the penny. I took the system home, ripped it open, and popped in the Ridge Racer. I was blown away by the visuals and locked myself in my room for days playing through this game. It was the only PSP game I owned until I started working a couple of years later. I wound up hacking the PSP and just downloading ISO files and renting games as well.

Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror

This was the second PSP game I ever pre-ordered. I cleaned the bathroom at my aunt’s driving school, which she taught at, for a few weeks to make up for this. I wrote an entire walkthrough of the game as well. Being a diehard Syphon Filter fan, it was a dream come true that a sequel finally got released.

Tony Hawk’s Underground 2 Remix

While this was the tail end of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater goodness, I was ecstatic that we got a game on the PSP. I didn’t have enough money to pre-order it, but when it finally dropped in price and I saw a used copy at my local Game Crazy, I snagged it and played it for weeks on end.

Coded Arms

I was skeptical about this game due to the PSP’s controls and wound up not picking it up or pre-ordering it. For $40, I wanted to save my money for something else. It was a decent, if generic, shooter, but controlled well and made a big splash when it was released as the first FPS on the system.

Burnout Legends

It was an absolute gem of a game. I never thought the sense of speed would be nailed on such a small screen. This was one of those games that showed off the power of the PSP and was a thrill to play.

Daxter

This was one of those games I rented, as I knew it would be very short and I would finish it in a day. It was a lot of fun, and it was nice to see Daxter get on his own adventure.

And that concludes my childhood gaming. A year after I got my Xbox 360, I started working, and my parents stopped buying me games and consoles. I was on my own with that. This is also when I started my retro game collection, buying my first few PS1 games. While there were many more games I played as a child, these were the most memorable and stood out the most to me. Right around 17 is when I started working, stopped getting allowance, and for only two more years would I receive games from my parents during Christmas time, but I won’t count those as I could have bought them on my own regardless. I continue to grow my gaming memories to this day, and while they may never be as magical as the innocence of your childhood when all you had to worry about was your game time, I will be gaming for as long as I can.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/24/2024
Posted in: Android, Hardware, Mobile Reviews. 4 Comments

Here I am again. Back where it all started. My first tablet was an Android tablet. Specifically, the Asus Nexus 7 (2012). 7″ seemed huge back in the day. Phones were just inching towards the 5″ mark, so this seemed reasonable. Now we have 14″-inch tablets that seemed like a pipe dream back in the day and, 10 years ago, cost thousands. After owning two iPads (1st and 5th Gen iPad Pros), with the last one being 12.9″, I thought that was massive. I didn’t realize how small it was compared to this tablet.

Like I’ve said in many recent tablet and phone reviews, unboxing experiences aren’t what they used to be. You get the tablet and a charging cable. Even tablets have stopped shipping with wall plugs now. The S8 Ultra is massive. When you pull it out of the box, you feel like you’re holding a small TV. Any larger, and these things will be comically too big for any practical use outside of watching videos. Going from 7″ tablets 10-12 years ago to tablets this large is strange. I remember when tablets with this screen size were thousands of dollars. What size is too big just for everyday use? I think this may have reached that limit. This thing isn’t comfortable being held with a single hand. You need a case for this thing, and sadly, the S8 Ultra does not come with one. Samsung’s offerings are $100, so a third-party option is more viable (which is what I did). Especially since the tablet comes with an S-Pen that can be easily lost without a tablet. The supplied magnets and charging area aren’t enough to keep them from falling off.

The specs on tablets these days are essentially the same as their phone counterparts. This tablet has the same Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset my Galaxy Z Flip 5 has. This is perfectly fine, as these higher resolutions are almost on par with phones, so you won’t notice any noticeable slowdown in games or apps. With 8GB of RAM, you will have more than enough to play any game under the sun or multitask with many apps. Android 14 is so efficient that I haven’t run into the slowdown issues that I did just 5 years ago. 128GB of storage space is more than enough for games, comics, ebooks, etc. If you need more than that, you can expand with a microSD card, up to 1TB, which is so nice to have. 1TB cards are as low as $60 now, which is much cheaper than buying a tablet with more internal storage. 

It looks like this is an extremely thin tablet for what is packed inside. The massive Super AMOLED screen with a 16:10 aspect ratio and a resolution that’s just around 2K will give you a crisp, vivid image that’s been known with all Samsung devices. The 120-Hz refresh rate is a nice plus, so everything feels and looks super smooth. Honestly, this is a direct translation from any high-end Samsung phone just steam-rolled into a 14″ tablet. There is a power and volume rocker, and the fingerprint sensor is embedded in the screen (which I’m not a huge fan of) and isn’t as fast or as accurate as the one seen in the power buttons on the phones. The software is a near 1:1 copy of that seen on any Samsung phone, so I won’t go into details on that. There doesn’t seem to be anything bespoke for the tablets. The quad-sqeakers sound fantastic from AKG. Even the cameras are surprisingly decent for a tablet.

The S-Pen is larger than that seen on phones but is essentially the same functionally. There are a couple of magnets located on the edges, and there is a large black space under the rear camera for charging. The biggest drawback to this entire tablet is not having the pen inside the tablet, but cases can remedy this. Having the pen on the back of the tablet also means it won’t lay flat, and that’s another issue as it can slip out from underneath or cause the tablet to fall. It’s a minor issue, though, that can be remedied with a case. I found the S-Pen very useful on a screen this large for writing, playing games, or just using it to navigate screens. The pen feels smooth but also has a small amount of grip on the screen, and it’s incredibly responsive. I’m not an artist either, but I’m sure this would be great to draw with.

Overall, the massive screen real estate is great for movies, comics, reading, games, and drawing. Alternatively, you can use a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard and use this 14″ Android-powered laptop as well. It’s very versatile and great for multitasking and document writing as well. However, if you’re looking for something small to just lay in bed with, this isn’t the tablet for you. You need a case with a kickstand or hold it with two hands, and that may be too much for some people. The specs are on par with flagship phones, and the UI is 1:1 with them as well. If you own a Samsung phone, this tablet will be an easy transition for you.

Update: I have been getting a lot of comments and messages regarding my opinion on the tablet size. This review is for personal everyday use. Not business, not work, not anything else. Tablets have never been this large until the last couple of years that are affordable for the average consumer. Most people I’ve talked to think this size it too big. The sub-10″ range seems to be best for most people. The tablet is heavy and hard to hold with one hand to lay down and play games or flick through the news, and if you add the bulk of a case it’s even heavier, plus you need a case that can hold the pen. Those things are objectively true when using the tablet. I have been told by other users who bought this, or any Samsung tablet, that they stick the pen in a drawer and forget about it because it’s not worth the hassle to keep track of it which is a valid point. Despite my highly positive review here people are harping on a single subject that I think is worth addressing.

Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/17/2024
Posted in: PC Reviews, PlayStation 5, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Verification, Steam Deck Verified. Leave a comment

Publisher: Square Enix

Developer: Square Enix Business Division 1

Release Date: 06/10/2021


Available On

Final Fantasy VII is one of the most influential video game and pop culture icons of all time. It was revolutionary in its day in storytelling, graphics, and scope. I never got around to playing the original PS1 game. When the game came out, I just wasn’t into JRPGs and would never have had the patience to finish the game or even remotely understand the story. I was 7 at the time. Fast forward nearly three decades, and out comes the remake. The Final Fantasy VII projects have been in the making for nearly two decades. I remember the Advent Children being released. I rented it and watched it with my parents, and I had no idea what was going on. There was a mobile game exclusive to Japan at the time, and Crisis Core had just been released. I also had no idea what was going on in that game. I couldn’t appreciate these FF7 projects as I hadn’t played the original title.

That has all changed. Square Enix did a great job bringing the game up to par with modern audiences and video game standards. Not only is the story well told and easy to follow, but it’s still complex and full of interesting and lovable characters. While this game is only what the first disc from the original offered, there are 30+ hours of content here to explore. While the game isn’t perfect, there is more to love than to hate, and I was surprised at how great this game was. I didn’t want to put it down. From the well-done English voice-acting (which was a shocker) to the well-paced and fast-moving story, the game never got stale (at least during the story moments). 

The basic structure of this game is very linear. This is a dated design choice that transferred over, but some think this game has been in development since the tech demo for the PS3 reveal was shown in 2006. If that were the case, then this linear design would have been considered mostly modern at the time. There are large towns to explore, but these still have linear paths, and the story mode is a single path you follow, and there’s no way to branch off. This is both fine for a scripted story but also feels cramped in some aspects. Despite how large Midgar feels, with sweeping vistas and massive backdrops, you can explore very little of it. There’s a large sense of scale, but what you can explore just feels so claustrophobic in comparison. Many thought this would be an open-world game, but to follow the story the way Square Enix’s wants, that wouldn’t be possible, and I can see why they chose this path.

Exploring the game (and even the menu system) is similar to most modern Final Fantasy games. You run around towards a goal, fight bosses, run into enemies, do some mini-games, complete side quests, and try to get the best accessories, armor, and weapons in the game. This is all slowly introduced to you, but let’s start with the combat, as that’s the bulk of the game. Combat is not turn-based, but you can pause the action to give commands. The controls are intuitively designed to allow this to be done with minimal effort. You have regular attacks, a special attack, a block, and a dodge button. When enemies have red exclamations over their heads with the attack name, you know it can’t be blocked but must be dodged. Cloud’s alternate special attack is actually a stance called Punisher Mode, and while you block him, he will auto-parry incoming attacks. This comes in handy all the time. 

You can issue commands, such as using ababilities. These are obtained by changing weapons. Materia can be equipped to give you commands that use MP. Things like magic, offense, defense, and even passive Materia can be slotted. Different weapons and equipment determine your slot count. It’s important that you learn this system well and balance your team. You can only have three active party members at a time, but you never change your party. It’s all based on the story. You will go through multiple chapters with a missing party member, but you can still upgrade and equip them all the time, even when they aren’t with you. Powering up weapons is also a must. Each weapon has strengths and weaknesses. Some focus on sheer power, some on magic, and some on defensive skills. You acquire SP through combat and can use it across all weapons. Each weapon gets the same pool of SP separately. If you have 90 SP, you can use that separately on each weapon, which is really nice. As you level up, you unlock new SP pools.

Combat is fast-paced, fun, and exciting. Each character can be controlled by the player in combat only. During exploration, you’re mostly stuck as Cloud or another character, as the story deems fit. Cloud is an all-rounder; Aerith mostly focuses on magic and distance combat; Tifa is a fast-paced melee fighter; and Barret uses a mid- to long-range gun, which is great for aerial enemies. He also has a ton of HP and defensive points. You can issue commands to other characters with the triggers that pause combat. You all have two AP gauges that fill up slowly over time or quicker as you do damage. These are needed to even use items in combat. These guides are the center of your strategy because, without them, you will die. You have limit breaks, which really can only be filled during longer battles (mostly bosses) and summons that deal massive damage, but the battle needs to be long enough to fill these guages.

Summons are mostly acquired optically through the VR training. You only get two during the story mode automatically. These are the keys to strategizing battles and winning as quickly as possible. I found the combat rarely frustrating. Only during long boss battles with multiple phases did I find it annoying that these cut-scenes were not skippable. You need to watch them all over again if you die. This didn’t become an issue until towards the end of the game. You can run away from battle by running away and fleeing, and thankfully enemies regenerate until you leave the entire area and come back. The boss battles are all unique and imaginative, and no one is the same. The smaller enemies are also unique and different, and they require you to learn their attacks and know what is weak against what type of attack. There is a lot more strategy in the combat system than a simple hack-and-slash setup.

While combat is the bulk of the game, you will spend a lot of time outside of combat. There are a few simple puzzles inside some dungeons, but the hub areas or towns you explore allow you to rest, buy items, materia, armor, and weapons, and that’s about it. The side quests and mini-games are some of the weakest parts of this game. While not every side- question is bad, Some offer challenging boss fights and good rewards; some just don’t offer much story-wise. I completed almost all of them anyway for more XP, SP, and the items they offered, but fetch quests are just not fun here. Not to mention, the mini-games are incredibly tedious and boring and not well thought out. There’s an okay darts mini-game. Beating the highest score and achievement. But there’s a box-breaking mini-game that requires you to run around breaking different-sized boxes. This was incredibly tedious and not fun. There are combat VR simulators that net you material. Most of which you can acquire elsewhere. Then there’s the optional summons, which can be incredibly difficult to acquire early on as you need to beat them, and you need three party members to even have a fair chance. There’s also a pretty stupid dancing rhythm mini-game. It’s just, overall, a bit lame.

Some other annoying niggles come from dated design decisions, like treating the player like they’re stupid. For decades, games would have you flip a switch, cut the camera away, show you that a gate in front of you opened, and then give you control. I’m pretty sure most people can figure out that the switch opened the only gate on the only path you can go down. I also got annoyed by how animations would have to line up to whatever script they were tied to, do the animation, re-align, change animations, flip the switch, then go back. It just slowed things down a lot. 

Outside of the mostly optional and passable annoyances, the visuals are fantastic. Character models look amazing, the pre-rendered cutscenes are some of the best in the industry, and the story and overall character designs are some of the best you will ever come across. The story is deep and full of political intrigue, and I want to know more about this world, the characters, and see things move on. It’s sad that Square Enix takes so long to make sequels, but what are we going to do? With the fantastic combat system that adds just enough strategy and depth to the large swath of enemies, bosses, environments, and perfect pacing, FF7 Remake is fantastic. The additional Intermission DLC is also wonderful, and playing as Yuffie is a blast. The short, 4-hour story DLC still has more of the same lame mini-games and annoyances as the main game, but the story is just so well done. There’s nothing quite like it out there.

Reviewed On

Xbox Series X Controller

Lost in Play

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/15/2024
Posted in: iOS, Mac, Mobile Reviews, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, Steam Deck Verification, Steam Deck Verified, Switch. Leave a comment

Publisher: Joystick Ventures

Developer: Happyjuice Games

Release Date: 08/10/2022


Available On

We all played with our imaginations as children. Pretending to go on adventures, or actually going on adventures against our parents chagrin, was what made up our most precious childhood memories. Whether it was spending long summer days playing with friends or staying inside with your siblings playing the latest revolutionary video game, That is what Lost in Play is about. Making adventures and memories as a child.

You play as a brother and sister, Gal and Toto, who wake up on a bright summer day and decide to get lost in their own imaginations. The first few chapters have you going from their reality to actual reality to give you this idea of what’s going on. The game is full of a lot of puzzles and figuring out what items go where. This can be both fun and frustrating at the same time. I wasn’t a fan of most of the puzzles, but the screen increases in numbers as you look for objects and figure out what needs to go where.

The first screen is a perfect way to introduce this. It’s just a single screen, and you learn to click on objects that are standing out. The characters will interact with it or talk to the person. A bubble will pop up with the item the character wants, or your player character will pop a bubble up explaining in one single picture what they need to do. There is a generous hint system that shows a single picture of what to do next or helps you get started with a puzzle. I love this, and it doesn’t punish the player at all; however, some of the hints were not helpful.

As you progress through the game, you get to chapters with many screens and many things to interact with. Once you find your first object, you can usually build momentum and realize who needs what and where. The puzzles are the worst part of the game. Extremely hard slider puzzles; some games are won purely on chance, which is frustrating. Sometimes rules aren’t explained well enough. A particular puzzle with lasers and having to slide animals around to deflect gets very frustrating as it’s a sliding puzzle. The worst one in the game is the final puzzle, in which you have to trap a jumping frog on a grid. It’s done by pure chance, and no walkthrough will help you. There are also some puzzles with symbols, and it seems impossible to figure out what they represent or how to interpret them.

The puzzles aren’t very common, but they do hamper some of the experience. I really loved seeing all of the detail poured into this game’s animation. It feels like a high-quality cartoon. Every interaction is a new animation. One particular point where this stood out was Gal or Toto picking up the same type of object numerous times. Instead of the same pick-up animation, each one was unique. They didn’t have to do that. It makes the entire game feel alive and soulful. The story itself isn’t anything complex or deep, and there’s no voice acting. Characters speak in a simple fashion, which adds to the charm of the game. The visuals are bright and colorful, and every screen and moment feels special. They don’t make many games like this. 

Outside of the puzzle issues, there was just a small annoyance with touch controls on mobile. Tapping the screen can sometimes cause you to interact with the same object or character, but it was nothing serious. Every area felt unique and different, and I couldn’t put the game down until the end. You can probably finish this in 2-3 hours, but it’s so much fun and constantly feels fresh and new. Lost in Play is a rare adventure game that I actually might remember and talk about later with people. This game proves that every little detail can make a difference.

Reviewed On

There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/08/2024
Posted in: Android, iOS, Mac, Mobile Reviews, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, Steam Deck Verification, Steam Deck Verified, Switch. Leave a comment

Publisher: Draw Me A Pixel

Developer: Draw Me A Pixel

Release Date: 08/06/2020


Available On

Have you ever wondered what it’s like to play a game as the actual code or program inside the game? Well, now you can! TING is a game in which you embark on an adventure with the game’s code. You start out at the title screen and must dismantle the entire screen to get the code’s attention. In this process, you discover a “glitch” that is trying to destroy everything. You get sucked into other dimensions and try to find your way back. The entire game is in the style of a point-and-click adventure, but instead of controlling a single character, you are the “user” that the code talks to. He gives you hints along the way as well as being able to unlock actual hints, which makes some of the more obscure puzzles easier.

You have to really think outside the box with this game, as you can take down parts of the UI and completely break the smaller games inside to progress. You will end up with a classic adventure title and a JRPG that makes fun of Zelda tropes. The game also pokes fun at other games and mechanics, such as microtransactions and free-to-play mechanics. I don’t want to spoil the Easter eggs, but the game has a great sense of humor, and anyone who has watched a few behind-the-scenes videos on how games are made will appreciate this game and the message it’s getting across.

Every area is new and different, and no two puzzles are the same. Some areas have multiple screens, and you can manipulate them in interesting ways, such as unscrewing the computer monitor you’re playing the game on and getting the back of the scene through the back panel. You have to also be okay with dragging the objects onto everything and trying combinations. Some things may not look obvious, but they make sense once you get the object or discover its use. Things like a mouse cursor popping a balloon, a metal letter T being used as a screwdriver, and the sign to a game title being used as a bridge. Almost every puzzle can be figured out with a bit of thinking, but a few were so obscure that I had to use all the hints available to me. When you press the hints button, it will show locks over the object that has hints. This can also be useful just to figure out what objects can be interacted with or what your focus should be without even using a single hint.

There are cutscenes in the game that can’t be interacted with, and this is shown with filmstrips going up the sides of the screen. Because this is a “joke” game and you can break actual games inside, you need other cues as to what’s a joke and what is not. Sometimes I didn’t know what was a joke and wound up restarting the game, but you also need to trust the game. There isn’t much else in terms of gameplay, but there doesn’t need to be. This is a very clever idea for a game that I have never seen before. The story is interesting, the characters are likeable, and it’s just an overall fun time and something really unique. The visuals are charming and switch up all the time, which makes you think outside the box.

Reviewed On

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip5

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 04/05/2024
Posted in: Android, Hardware, Mobile Reviews. Leave a comment

Here I am. Back home. Back to where it all started. Android. I left for a few years in 2021 as Android phones, especially from Samsung, were becoming stale and I was tired of the infrequent and late updates. Hardware hadn’t made any significant or interesting jumps. Add more lenses to the camera, slowly inch the screen larger and closer to 7”, add rounded edges, take them away, increase screen resolution, refresh rate, etc. Nothing at all interesting. That is, until foldable phones started coming out. I left those alone for a few generations, as I knew they needed to be perfected and tweaked. There were a lot of things that needed to be fixed, both physically and in software. We are on the 4th generation of foldable phones, and I feel like most of the smaller issues have been resolved. So, for someone who has been with Android since the original Motorola Droid, here’s my take.

My last Android and Samsung phone was the Note 20 Ultra. The last Note phone. It was fine. It was not impressive, and it had pretty much been the same for the last five years. It was nice that Samsung was redesigning their entire UI system for all of their smart devices. Tablets, watches, and phones. We are on One UI 6.1 now, and I feel it’s mostly unchanged from what it was five years ago. I also last used Android 10, so there have been four Android system upgrades since my last use.

Unboxing experiences are mostly unremarkable these days. Phones no longer come with wall adapters and expect users to know what the proper wattage input is needed to properly fast charge their phone. The Flip 5 needs 25W and uses 15W for wireless charging. It comes with a USB-C cable, and that’s about it. The biggest thing to note is the phone when it’s folded in half. Usually, this would make you cringe. Folding phones in half is usually a big no-no these days, but this is by design. Samsung is using Corning Gorilla Victus 2 glass for the front and rear displays. There is also a hinge system in place for folding the phone. The “crease” in the phone is obvious at first, but when using the phone, I rarely notice it or forget about it quickly. The glass does have a different feel to it. It almost feels like a layer of plastic rather than solid glass, but it’s still smooth to the touch. The front screen is a 6.7-inch AMOLED 2x screen, while the rear display is a 3.4-inch Super AMOLED screen. Both are incredibly vivid and bright, and they look fantastic.

The rest of the phone also feels good on the hands. The fingerprint sensor is on the power button now, and this is needed so you can unlock your phone while it is folded and with one hand. It makes it easy to just press the power button, and your phone will unlock at the same time. No silly in-screen sensor, rear sensor, or any other place. I’ve used them all, and the power button makes the most sense. The only other button is a volume rocker. The screen features a keyhole front-facing camera that is super tiny. There is also only a small bezel around the display, and it doesn’t really affect use or viewing the screen. I’m incredibly impressed with how well designed this phone is and how slim it is.

The software is mostly unchanged since I last used it four years ago. With a much faster chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, over Snapdragon 865+, things are snappy and breezy, and Android can rarely freeze or slowdown now. Apps open instantaneously, and most of the issues I had with Android phones even just four years ago are pretty much gone. Samsung has tweaked their settings, gotten rid of Bixby for the most part, and it’s an intuitive setup switching from Apple. With Anroid being the most customizable and allowing more freedom, it can seem overwhelming, with nearly every app or setting you select coming with a pop-up or a tutorial. There is a lot that can be tweaked and defined in Android 14 now. From Android Auto to Galaxy Wearables, there’s a lot of quality of life improvements and things I wish Apple would do. While I won’t go into minute details here, just know that switching from a complete Apple setup to Android, or Samsung specifically, overnight is a seamless experience. I miss my custom ringtones!

Let’s talk about his front-screen business. The Flip 5 features a much larger screen than its predecessors. These previous models only had a 1.1” screen to basically show you notifications, and that was it. Now you can fully use apps and replay messages on the front screen. This may seem silly to some, but it’s pretty nice and easy to use, and I use this feature a lot. Having a much smaller device in your hand to just do something as simple as check the weather, respond to a text, read an email, etc. is really nice. Samsung hasn’t fully enabled this feature yet. You need to enable apps through the Design Labs, but this in turn only allows apps that seem to be fully tested by Samsung. The Good Lock app on the Samsung store can add a launcher to allow you to open any app on the front screen, pretty much without issues. The apps resize down correctly, and some apps even have widgets that support the front screen already. With this being the first generation of the Flip with a full cover screen, it may take time for apps to natively support it.

Battery life seems to be okay, but the OS takes about a week to learn your habits and adjust how the battery is used accordingly. The 3,700mAh battery is just fine, but don’t expect 24 hours of use out of this. I got better life out of my iPhone 14 Pro Max, but improvements with use are still to be determined. The camera is pretty good but does not use Samsung’s flagship sensor that’s seen in the S series. The camera is a 12 MP sensor with a 12 MP wide telephoto lens. The front camera is a 10 MP sensor. They aren’t anything to write home about, but they aren’t awful either. I’m not a camera snob, so they work just fine for me, but if you want a top-end camera in your phone, this isn’t the one for you.