Third-person action games were big on PS2 thanks to games like Devil May Cry. They were some of the largest games you could find on the system, and Bujingai followed that trend. The story is nonsensical and has almost no point existing. You’re following a former master around who has been possessed by a demon and has taken your girlfriend or something lame like that. Having almost no story isn’t a great way to start a game either.
One of the big draws with this game was the fact that the Japanese rockstar Gackt was involved, and I mean about as involved as showing up and grunting. Advertising someone as big as Gackt was at the time and only having him grunt and shout is a complete waste of talent. He has zero lines of dialogue and probably finished his whole recording session in a few hours. There isn’t even any music by Gackt in here which is lame. With that said, the game is all about hacking and slashing and there’s plenty of that.
The game consists of a quick and heavy attack as well as dodging and a defense meter that auto-blocks attacks until the meter is run down. 90% of the regular enemies are brain dead and are a cakewalk to slice through. As enemies die you acquire orbs which are used to upgrade various stats. You also have spells that are hidden throughout levels and can be passive or active. I rarely used these and most are not that powerful, but the passive attack increase spell wound up being the most useful. Lau, the main character, has some really nice animations and the game is very flashy, but there are so many flaws that make this game a frustrating nightmare to play.
Something as simple as platforming is bogged down by an awful camera and finicky jumping mechanics. The character jumps in the direction the camera is facing and the direction can’t be altered mid-air. This led to dozens of minutes just trying to get across a few platforms. You can wall run, glide, and wall jump but they add to the chore and headache that is platforming in this game. The combat solely relies on the lock-on mode as the camera can’t keep up with the action. This proves extremely annoying during boss fights, and the final nail in the coffin is the uninterruptable animations that cause endless deaths and pointless damage being taken. Lau will spin and slice, but one button press is a series of animations that must be played out before you can even dodge. Even if you time your attacks in between the enemies’ most of the time you will still take damage because you can’t stop the attack. This also goes for the fall-down animations that take forever and recovery is just as slow.
The level design is also very bland with generic Japanese folklore-inspired enemies and repeated bosses. There’s not a soul in this game as it just feels like a cookie-cutter Japanese game that tried to get sales with Gackt’s name. I honestly didn’t feel like there was any benefit to playing this game the entire time I played and I couldn’t even finish the game due to how incredibly difficult it ended up being by just fighting the animations and camera. I got to the second to last boss and had to just give up after 2 hours of trying. It also doesn’t help that orbs aren’t given out often enough to allow you to upgrade fully before reaching the final 8th stage. I like how if you die you just restart the area you’re in instead of the entire level, but it means nothing if you can’t progress.
As it stands, Bujingai is a forgettable game with almost no point in existing. If you’re itching for a hardcore hack and slash that requires precise timing then this might be for you, but there isn’t even a decent story to complete and even Gackt fans have nothing to really gain here.
If you ignored the original Killzone back in 2004 I can’t blame you. It was a rough road for Guerilla as they tried to make an exclusive first-person shooter for Sony’s underpowered console to out beat Halo and Metroid Prime. Sony never had an FPS that was exclusive to their system, so it was Guerilla’s time to shine. It was dubbed “The Halo Killer” by fanboys and it sadly received lukewarm reviews upon release. I actually got this for Christmas 2004 and ate it up like candy and was a serious fanboy over this game. Fast forward 14 years later and I can see the game’s many flaws, but also appreciate what it did for the PS2.
You play as a squad of four who are tasked with stopping an evil Nazi-like empire known as the Helghast that is trying to destroy all of humanity over the planet Vekta. The story is bare-bones, but there’s a lot of potential here with interesting art assets and great voice acting, but it just falls flat. There’s no background on the main characters of the war you’re fighting in. You’re literally just dropped in with no background or reasoning behind it. This was never done with Halo or Metroid Prime as you were pulled right into the war or battles and understood exactly why you were there. It’s just a bunch of cut-scenes with the squad going after various Generals and moving from Helghan base to Helghan base.
The shooting is very interesting as it’s part of why Killzone was loved by those who did like it. There’s a lot of weight behind the weapons and they are actually quite unique and shoot well. It’s your standard array of military weapons but with a twist and with some personality behind them. Honestly, the weapons are the only thing front and center in Killzone and dominate the entire game. From the ISA and Helghast standard assault rifles to rocket launchers, grenade launchers, pistols, and heavy machine guns. Most weapons have a secondary fire that helps balance their weaknesses such as the Helghan’s rifle has a shotgun attachment and the ISA one has a grenade launcher. I personally stuck with the Helghast assault rifle through the first fourth of the game as you can only play as Templar, but once the other characters were unlocked I played as Rico since he has a chain gun with 800 rounds and a missile launcher. It’s seriously overpowered but feels so good to mow everyone down around you. The only weapon I really disliked was the shotgun as it’s so slow to pump and shoot that unless you are one on one with a single enemy you’ll get killed because you can’t fire fast enough. It’s practically useless even in tight corridors.
The downside to the weapons having a lot of weight behind them is the animations. They are so long that it makes the game more difficult than it needs to be. Every time you switch weapons there’s a long animation of pumping the shotgun, fiddling with a rocket launcher scope, and flipping up the lid on the scope to the sniper rifle, Rico’s chain gun takes at least 2-3 seconds to swing out then there’s a weird pump animation after so you have to hide behind walls every time you switch weapons because of these animations. The same goes for reloading. Some weapons take over 5 seconds to reload with the shotgun taking nearly 10 to load every single round. It’s fun to see and was never done up to that point in time, but it needed to be sped up or changed.
Outside of the weapons the enemy AI is as dumb as a doorknob with the Helghast literally standing around not shooting at all or they won’t move to cover. Part of this is the underpowered CPU in the PS2 and the game engine that pushed it way too far. There’s so much pop-in with fog of war to make up for the lack of a draw distance that enemies pop in and most of the time all at once so an entire room or corner will be full of Helghasts that are easy pickings with a single grenade or kill you really quickly if you don’t notice them. The game engine just chokes the PS2 like no other game with framerates dipping into single digits. I also played the remastered version for PS3 and while the 720p resolution looks sharper, there are still framerate drops because the engine just couldn’t handle the load. Sadly, because of the limitations, environments are bland and boring with claustrophobic corridors and almost no draw distance. The game is gray, dull, and colorless, and while this could have worked, the weak PS2 brings the art backward because not enough can be rendered on the screen to make it look nice.
The entire game pretty much plays the same way and takes about 5 hours to finish. There are no vehicle scenes, no scripted events, it’s all just running and gunning which gets old towards the end. For the PS2, this game is quite impressive and had a decent multiplayer mode, but there are more flaws than there are perfections. I would rather have had an uglier game that played better, but PS2 fanboys were clamoring for something that pushed the system like Halo did the Xbox. Is Killzone a Halo killer? Absolutely not and doesn’t even come close.
Kratos and God of War are PlayStation icons and symbols of what the system can offer. This game was the biggest hit in 2005 and I went nuts for it like everyone else. It reinvented the action-adventure genre like no one else had with epic boss fights, cinematic combat, and insane-level design. We finally get all of this in portable form on the Vita. While it isn’t the most ideal version it’s still plenty of fun.
God of War is really starting to show its age and flaws these days, that is really clear. It was a new idea, however well executed, but still had some issues. The game isn’t quite as epic as I remember thanks to newer games in the series being insanely huge. There are only two big boss fights in this game and I could swear there were more. The game is brutal in spots, but still rewarding with many secrets and areas to explore.
You play as Kratos, a Spartan general who cried out for Ares to save him and defeat his enemies, but this all came at a huge price. I won’t spoil more of the story if you have never played this series, but longtime fans know it already. The game has amazing combat which is what was praised so much 13 years ago. Using the Blades of Chaos, Kratos can swing and spin them around with amazing animations and kill hordes of enemies. I’m not kidding about hordes, there are some scenes where you must defeat nearly a hundred enemies which is brutal.
The enemy variety is also great as there are small easy enemies to huge lumbering Cyclops that take many hits to kill. God of War is famous for quick-time event kills. After so much damage is taken the enemies will display the circle button above their head. This initiates a quick-time button pressing even that will give you health orbs. Each enemy has its own unique animations. Each enemy is also a challenge on their own as some are dangerous on hordes while not so much alone. The level design is fantastic and the enemy placement is cleverly laid out to offer a challenge every step of the way.
The series is also famous for the magic powers you acquire that are different with every game. You get four which become very useful for various enemies. Poseidon’s Rage is great for clearing hordes of weaker enemies as it’s an AOE attack. Zeus’ Fury is the only long-range weapon you get for picking off ranged enemies. Souls of Hades is like a shield, and Medusa’s Gaze is great for larger single enemies to turn them to stone. On top of the Blades of Chaos you also get Artemis’ Blade which is a powerful short-range heavy weapon, but once the Blades were fully upgraded, I honestly never really used it.
Outside of combat are puzzles that will sometimes slow you down. Most consist of pressing switches in order, climbing puzzles, or jigsaws. Pandora’s temple is a giant puzzle within itself that takes up a third of the game near the middle. I just can’t stress enough how hard this game can be. Some spots had me restarting dozens of times until I got it right and this included platforming sections. The first game’s Hell area is notorious for being brutally difficult. Having to balance on long spinning logs covered in blades and then climbing spinning spiked towers that stretch on forever is daunting, but rewarding when you do complete it.
Overall, God of War is still a blast to play 13 years later and is as well polished as I remember. Outside of hardware limitations at the time Sony did an amazing job creating what they did. There are some cheap deaths, unbalanced difficulty in spots, and the quick-time events do get repetitive, but it’s minor issues that can’t really bring the game down even today.
The Vita version is the only way to play this game in portable form, and it’s not the most ideal version. The PS3 version runs at a smooth 60FPS, but the Vita cleans up the visuals a little and does have some FPS drops when a lot of enemies are on screen, but it’s not often. I’m sad to see this game doesn’t hit 60FPS which it does even on PS2 sometimes, which keeps this game from getting a perfect score.
Make sure you have the latest version! The team is constantly making changes, and even if it doesn’t seem important it may fix your problem!
After 13 years PCSX2 is finally out of beta! Just about all of the PS2 libraries runs flawlessly or with a few minor issues that can be fixed with settings in the emulator. You will need a PC no older than 2 years old to get the games running at 60 FPS. You can use an older computer, but may not be able to run graphics-heavy games like Killzone, Black, Final Fantasy X, or Devil May Cry. You may be able to run other games like 2D RPGs such Ar Tennelico, Tales of Symphonia, as well as simpler games like Amplitude, Frequency, or Odin Sphere. Here’s what you should at least have to get the games running smoothly. The games are unplayable at 60 FPS and you experience the games in slow-motion. Instead of seriously jerking around like in PC games, the emulator will just play everything in slow-motion and voices sound like they’re drunk. Not a fun way to play.
With my laptop specs below I can play most less graphically demanding games at 60 FPS. Games like Black, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit 2, Killzone, God of War 2, Gran Turismo 3 and 4, won’t run on these specs. I get less than 20 FPS which is unplayable.
Minimum System Requirements:
Processor: Any dual-core CPU at least 3GHz. This includes AMD and Intel
Graphics Card: AMD RADEON HD 4xxx series or newer. NVIDIA GTX 2xx series or newer)
Onboard graphics chips WILL NOT ALWAYS WORK! This includes Intel HD Graphics chips, DON’T EVEN TRY IT! Your mileage will vary
Memory: 4GB
Operating System: Windows Vista 64-bit
Mid-Range System Requirements:
Processor: Any quad-core CPU at least 3Ghz or faster (overclocked CPUs are best). 3rd generation Intel i7 CPUs are best or newer.
Graphics Card: GPU no older than 5 years. AMD RADEON HD 6xxx or up and NVIDIA GTX 5xx and up.
Memory: 6GB or more
Operating System: Windows 7 64-bit
With desktop specs below I can play any game out there with 3x native resolution and MSAA x4 and the games barely push my system. Even Killzone and Black run really well. Even games that are graphically demanding or require software mode to run push my CPU on the below rig. You need something similar to get the best results with no slow down.
Recommended (High-End) System Requirements:
Processor: Any quad-core CPU at least 3Ghz or faster (overclocked CPUs are best). Latest generation Intel i7 CPUs are best.
Graphics Card: The latest and greatest. AMD RADEON RX 560 or up and NVIDIA GTX 1050 and up.
Memory: 8GB or more
Operating System: Windows 10 64-bit
Here’s a video of me playing Gran Turismo 4 at 4K 60FPS with my current build above!
Setting up
1. Here’s where to start. Download the installer *currently outdated* so download the latest SVN
2. Extract the folder to a location, click the exe and follow the setup wizard.
3. For the GS settings select (with whatever revision number after it there is one). This is for the newest processors with AVX2 for the fastest emulation. Only select lower if you know what you’re doing or if you have a really old computer (probably pre-2010).
4. For PAD select Lilypad and hit configure. Make sure your controller is plugged in and you should see the device near the bottom.
Leave all other settings (unless you know what you’re doing) and go to the Pad 1 tab.
Some controllers may come with preset bindings, but if not just click the buttons then press the button on the controller. If your controller has force feedback click the Big Motor and Small Motor buttons to change settings and test to see if it is being recognized by Lilypad. When done click apply. *Make sure you save your bindings in case you update PCSX2 and it loses your bindings! Bindings save is in General tab* Click ok and next in the wizard
5. SPU2-X should be your sound plugin. There’s no point in fiddling with this, but make sure your Interpolation is set to 2 or 3 and not 4 under Configure.
6. Just click next on everything else. These are CD drives, Firewire, and USB plugins that really don’t need fiddling with.
7. At the end, it will ask you about BIOS files. GOOGLE IT! The first 10 results will have links to the files. I can’t post them because they are copywritten by Sony and illegal unless you dump your own BIOS files from your own PS2 (which is complicated and confusing for the average user). But, it’s a pirate’s life for me! Once you get your BIOS files, put them in the bios folder in the PCSX2 folder and click refresh. Select the latest USA BIOS that shows up and you’re done!
Next are games. You can use ripped games or ones in the CD drive. For ripped games go to CDVD>Iso Selector>Browse. After this click System>Boot (fast) and your game should be running! Now to configure your graphics plugin to make the game work faster, and improve the quality of the game over what you would normally see on the PS2!
Tweaking/Configuring
Graphics Plugin
1. With your game in window mode go to Config>Video>Plugin Settings
You should have Direct3D11 (Hardware) selected. There’s another plugin that might look slightly different, but overall it’s the same so don’t panic. Selecting Software mode will make the emulator run everything off your processor only which will give you incredible slowdown (unless you have a monster 4+ core CPU). Hardware uses both GPU and CPU. Null doesn’t render any video and is pretty much useless.
There are some options here that most PC gamers will notice. Most of these settings will make you take some serious FPS hits (especially anti-aliasing and native resolution above 2x) so turn them on and if you notice any serious FPS drops turn them off.
1. Texture filtering– makes textures look cleaner and smoother (leave on Bilinear)
2. Internal Resolution – Makes the game looks much sharper without needing MSAA. A huge GPU hog starts with 2x and moves up until you start losing frames. Most high-end GPUs can go up to 8x on some games.
3. Anisotropic Filtering – A cheap way to make textures look smooth. Uses very little GPU power so always set to 16x unless you notice frame loss.
4. Software Rendering Settings – This renders with the CPU only and ignores the GPU. There are some games that only work in Software mode so check that game’s page first. Edge Anti-aliasing should always be set and enter the number of threads you have (however many cores you have times 2. EX: an i7 4770 has 4 cores so it has 8 threads. An i7 8700 has 6 cores so 12 threads). This is important to get the max speed out of your CPU.
5. Renderer– Always use DX11 Hardware unless a game specifies otherwise. This will get the most out of your GPU.
6. Enable HW (hardware) hacks – Only enable this if you have some graphics issues in games. After you enable it hit configure and you will notice MSAA (yes this makes the games look sharper, but with some serious FPS hits). Hover over each item and you will see a list of games they work on. If you are playing that game and notice graphical anomalies check it and see if your problem goes away (it probably will). If you are having weird issues, like Destroy All Humans 2! below, then that’s what skipdraw is for.
These fullscreen issues are rare now, but if they happen set skipdraw between 1-20 and it will usually go away. Destroy All Humans 2!’s full-screen issues like this go away at 5 skipdraw.
That’s pretty much it for the graphics plugin. For each game just tweak the settings and see how good you can make the game look without getting under 60 FPS.
Processor Plugin
Secondly, we’ll get to the Core settings which can make your game even faster! Go to Config>Video>Core GS Settings
If your game just doesn’t run well with basic settings try using speed hacks. Completely ignore the first three tabs! You will never need to change these. These are the PS2 EmotionEngine settings and only coders, programmers, and people who seriously know what they’re doing need to mess with these! Just focus on the last three tabs. The latest versions of PCSX2 have auto-mode enabled which is fine for most games, but some need tweaking. Try to always enable MTVU if you have a quad-core CPU or higher to get some much needed FPS.
Try adjusting steps 1-3 on EE Cyclerate first before using VU Cycle Stealing. Ignore the warnings on here, except when you’re on 3. If an FMV or cutscene is slow or stutters go back to 2 until it’s over (yes it’s a pain but what can you do?) VU Stealing can give you a bigger boost but may cause a slowdown in some games even if you are at 60 FPS. Things may run in slow-motion despite high FPS so turn down VU Stealing. Ignore all other settings here. Just fiddle with these sliders to your heart’s content.
GS Window
This is where you can set the fullscreen aspect ratio, window size, etc. You can enable Vsync and other options and is pretty straightforward. Nothing complicated here.
Game Fixes
This is all pretty self-explanatory. If you have a game listed here and you are having listed issues, check these fixes. Nuf said.
Playing the Game!
Now that all the boring stuff is out of the way it’s time to play! If you play in window mode you will notice some things at the top of the window.
The only things you have to watch are:
-Interlaced: When you press F5 to stop screen shaking this will tell you what interlace option is enabled.
-Limiter: This is very important! If you press F4 you will turn the FPS limiter off and see the full potential of your hardware and PCSX2! However, if the game runs above 60 FPS it will be like it’s in fast forward and will either freeze up or skip everything. Keep it on Normal.
-FPS: This is your frame rate per second. This should always be around 60.
Ignore everything else!
If you play a game in hardware mode some FMVs may not play. Press F9 and enter software mode so they will. If you ever get a half-screen problem you need to be in software mode. Currently Champions of Norrath is one of those games. You need a very powerful quad-core CPU to play in software mode, preferably a CPU with 8 threads or more. 4 thread CPUs are fine, but dual-cores won’t really work unless it’s highly overclocked (above 3Ghz).
Saving
PCSX2 has a save state feature where you can save anywhere in the game and load right back up to that moment whether it’s mid-swing in a boss fight, or just before a crucial move in a strategy game. Of course, you can save like on a normal PS2 which is recommended because save states can be incompatible with the different versions of PCSX2. There’s a backup feature that should be enabled in System just in case. Have fun and I hope this guide helped!
I have to note that this is the older, and better, model of the Cordless Precision Controller for PS2. The newer one doesn’t feel as nice but is more widely available. Besides the official DualShock 2, there isn’t a better controller out there. There were so many third-party controllers for the PS2 and they were all mostly terrible. From poor ergonomics to bad wireless technology or lame button placement. Some controllers opted for the Xbox-style analog stick layout or were just poorly built. Logitech was the king of accessories back in the day, and while they were more expensive, they were worth the money. I had this controller last for over 10 years until it pretty much died on me recently and I had to buy a new one. That’s a long time for an accessory and it went through several moves, was stashed in storage for a couple of years, and was dropped, kicked, thrown, and smashed over and over again growing up.
What makes this controller the best wireless option for PS2 is that it just feels good and is more solid than the official controller. There’s more bulk and it feels heavier and more solid in your hands. The controller fits so nicely with shorter arms and a thicker back with larger top buttons. The D-pad is much improved and works well with fighters as it’s a rolling D-pad over the standard plus D-pad. My only complaint would be that the analog sticks are too loose for my taste and they take some getting used to.
The controller connects to the receiver easily with just a press of a button and no need to repair it. I never once had to pair the controller over the 10 years I owned it. It shuts off after 5 minutes of inactivity, there’s a mode button for switching from digital to analog and that’s all you need. It lasts nearly 50 hours on 2 AAs so get some rechargeables and you’re golden. I also have to mention the battery cover is a pain to get off, but you can’t have everything.
Overall, this is the best controller option for the PS2 bar none. Sadly, it’s not made anymore and can be upwards of $50-60 used and new controllers run over $100. If you can nab one these are worth the investment tenfold. Just another side note, the black version is the most common with the silver being second and the blue one being nearly impossible to find. The silver ones pop up here and there, but I have yet to ever see the blue one.
The World War II series continues with a lesser-known FPS franchise: Wolfenstein. Being id Software’s side project, it never got many sales and never really got the attention that Medal of Honor and Call of Duty got. It focused more on the supernatural and cult part of WWII. Everyone knows Hitler was into it and did a lot of experiments in this manner. Wolfenstein tells that story. It forgoes the D-Day reenactments and Pearl Harbor simulations. This is a more arcade shooter but still set in WWII.
Wolfenstein 3D
Release Date: 5/5/1992 — PC
GameRankings: PC: 40%
Sales: Unknown
Wolfenstein 3D was a good-looking game back in the day thanks to John Carmack’s programming magic. However, the game was boring and came before the famous Doom. It was unlike anything anyone had seen, a first-person shooter? No way! The game only received a couple of critic reviews but passed under everyone’s radar. The game was released about 15 years later as a remake and was slightly better.
Wolfenstein 3D
3/1994 — SNES
GameRankings: SNES: 58%
Sales: Unknown
Instead of creating a whole new game id Software went on a porting craze. They ported the game to every system that came out and it just never really kicked off. It was still boring and there were much better action games on the SNES. The SNES version was worse than the PC version because a lot was cut and it was edited. The faces were really low-res and it just looked awful. It shows that PC games just didn’t work on the SNES, and the game controlled terribly on the D-pad. However, id didn’t learn their lesson and continued to port it throughout the 90s.
Wolfenstein 3D
Release Date: 10/19/995 — 3DO
GameRankings: 3DO: 82%
Sales: <10,000
The 3DO may have been a failed system, but Wolfenstein 3D shined on it, and out shown the PC version. It had fully orchestrated music, better graphics, and the ability to load and delete saves. This was the best version to get and many issues were ironed out here. Of course, no one really bought the 3DO and the game continued to see a small market and garner low sales.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
Release Date: 11/20/2001 — PC
GameRankings: PC: 86%
Sales: Unknown
Wolfenstein didn’t see a new sequel until almost ten years after the original. It was reimagined using state-of-the-art 3D technology and was a huge hit with PC gamers. Wolfenstein finally go the attention it deserved and became one of the best-selling PC games of the time. It was praised for its amazing multiplayer and the single-player was solid as well. While Medal of Honor was doing well on PlayStation, Wolfenstein got to the PC first before Allied Assault blew players away.
Wolfenstein 3D
Release Date: 3/31/2002 –GBA
GameRankings: GBA: 60%
Sales: 170,000
id tried again on the GBA, it had the technology to run the original, and playing the game on the go seemed like a great idea, but the problems with the first game were ported over as well. It had 60 levels but could be beaten in a few days, it also offered no multiplayer which was possible with the GBA Link Cable. Why id just ported the game straight over it beyond me, it was a solid shooter on the GBA, which there were few of, but it just needed something extra. However, it was at least better than the awful Medal of Honor: Underground port.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Tides of War
Release Date: 5/6/2003 — Xbox
GameRankings: Xbox: 84%
Sales: 670,000
Tides of War was released before the anticipated PC expansion. Wolfenstein was at its peak in 2003, but the Xbox version was loved for the online multiplayer that was an Xbox Live subscription seller. 16 players online were the hot new thing in 2003 and Tides of War fared much better than the abysmal Operation Ressurection on PS2. The game looked much better and in fact, even better than on PC. This was probably the best Wolfenstein console game made.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
Release Date: 5/29/2003 — PC
GameRankings: PC: 87%
Sales: Unknown
The official expansion was finally released 2 years later but was a bad time for the series because WWII heavy hitters were in full force. EA just released Battlefield 1942 and Medal of Honor had released Frontline a few months prior and Rising Sun was due out. Call of Duty was due out in October. Wolfenstein was in a sensitive position, but PC gamers ate it up. It was praised for multiplayer and the single-player was considered mediocre.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Operation Ressurection
Release Date: 5/30/2003 — PS2
GameRankings: PS2: 69%
Sales: 530,000
Wolfenstein hadn’t done well on consoles and Ressurection didn’t help that. The original RtCW was ported over but was missing the multiplayer, the game was heavily criticized for this. It doesn’t help that the textures looked terrible and animations were awful. The game bombed and didn’t do very well, probably for a good reason.
Wolfenstein made a comeback in 2009 with a reboot and to get fans excited they released an RPG on phones and re-released Wolfenstein 3D on Xbox 360 and PS3. RPG was very well received for capturing the addictive style of the first game, but with improved graphics and RPG features which was seen in Doom RPG. I personally loved the game, but it was very hard. The RPG elements added a whole new layer of depth to the game and sold very well.
Wolfenstein 3D
Release Date: 6/4/2009 — PS3, X360
GameRankings: PS3: 77%
X360: 62%
Sales: PS3, X360: <10,000
id just didn’t know when to quit with Wolfenstein 3D. No one liked it yet they thought a new generation of gamers would like it. The game suffered from the same issues as the PC version. It was boring and just so dated no one really cared. The superior RPG came out the previous month so why bother with this? Wolfenstein was actually the most ported WWII shooter, and one of the worst.
The reboot finally came. After tons of mediocre ports, everyone was curious about this one. The game looked really good, but it was the same WWII crap we were already tired of. The genre finally died in 2008, yet id Software thought it would be cute to release this. Maybe a few years prior this would have been welcomed, but just fell flat and felt average. The game had mazy levels, the weapons didn’t feel very great, and the story was pretty bad. It’s worth a play-through, but don’t expect anything amazing. I enjoyed the game a little, but after one play through I was done. The game sold just over a million copies and was the most successful Wolfenstein to date.
So there you have it. Wolfenstein was a weird series. The first game was ported for almost a decade then it came back in 2003 pretty strong on the PC but had bad console ports (Tides of War was pretty good). After a hiatus, it came back in 2009 but brought the stinky 3D game with it that no one wanted. So what of Wolfenstein now? No one has heard hide nor hair of the series since 2009. The series to date has sold just about 2.5 million copies which is not a lot for a long-running franchise. Will we see another on next-generation consoles? No one knows, Wolfenstein has a very small fan base and everyone is tired of WWII.
Ico is probably one of the most forgotten games in history. Being one of the first graphical powerhouses for the PS2, it proved that you don’t need a complex story and characters to have a good game. All you know is that you are a boy named Ico who is trying to save a girl named Yorda from her evil mother queen and escape from the castle. You enter as a captured prisoner because you have horns. You then escape and find Yorda along the way. What made Ico such a big deal was that you led her around manually by holding R1. This forced you to become attached to her, and they rarely spoke.
This game was way ahead of its time. That’s probably why people passed it by for Jak & Daxter and other PS2 games at the time. The game consists of some pretty cleverly designed puzzles that involve pulling switches, climbing, cutting ropes, and swinging on chains. You also push and pull the occasional block. The level design is really well done, but there were a few obscure puzzles like jumping off of a chain to knock a bridge down. This is completely against the game’s mechanics so you would never know to do this. Leading Yorda around sounds annoying, but it prevents you from having to rely on the already shoddy AI. The game mechanics work well enough in design but they are sloppy and frustrating to deal with.
When you jump Ico tends to clip into ledges and ladders making you have to slightly adjust him until he latches on. If you press the analog stick just slightly and jump he will jump 20 feet causing you to jump off ledges or fall down to your death. There’s just so much bad collision detection and the animations are janky and not well done. When you drag Yorda around her arm looks like a flopping noodle that can go through her body. I know this was originally designed for PS1 before the game jumped ship to PS2…but still. There are other mechanics like setting your sword down to pick up a giant stick, light it on fire, then setting off a bomb. Sometimes you have to toss these before they blow you up. Fun game mechanics and all but they repeated through the entire game making you be grateful for the short length (just about 4 hours).
A lot of times I didn’t know where to go because the middle of the game has two areas that are identical, but just slightly different. The constant backtracking can confuse you requiring a walkthrough. There are no boss battles to speak of except the final boss, but the combat is so frustrating and annoying. Ico swings his sword around aimlessly and you can’t move while doing so. The AI jumps away as soon as you run after it so if you get stuck in a three-hit combo you get knocked down and Yorda gets dragged away. You can’t die in this game during combat, but if Yorda gets dragged underground you’re done. You can pull her out of the hole, but sometimes a shadow creature will hit you and knock you back then you have to suffer the long animation of getting up. A lot of games had these animations (The Mark of Kri) and I don’t know why. It breaks the fluidity of everything. Once you get the hidden mace in the game combat is really easy, but you still get annoyed by the creatures constantly backing up when you approach.
The graphics look great with the new HD upgrade, but even back then they were amazing. A lot of textures have been slightly upscaled and some bloom and HDR have been added for better lighting. You can still notice the game’s age during up-close shots of areas. Textures are muddy and so blurry they don’t even look like what they are representing. The main thing is that you can pan the camera around more now that the resolution has been bumped up making navigation easier. This is how you do HD upgrades right.
Overall, Ico is a great game, but the dated mechanics really show their age. If you can look past all this you are in for a great, albeit short, game but don’t expect engaging characters or a complex story. There are 4 cutscenes in the whole game, but this is about the journey and not the story.
Shadow of the Colossus
I have been wanting to review this game forever, and now I have the chance. I played this back in 2005 when it first came out and it was just unreal. SotC still has some of the best graphics to grace the PS2, it almost looked next-gen at the time. Of course, it suffered from the massive slowdown, but now we can play it with some extra graphical effects and at 60FPS. There’s not much of a story here, there never is with Famito Ueda’s games. You are a boy named Wander who brings a girl to a temple, a cursed land, and vows to destroy all 16 colossi in order to bring her back to life. The game has one of the most touching endings I can remember.
The game is very basic, you just head to each colossus and slay it. There is a huge open-world, but it is very barren and void of life, but that’s the way it is supposed to be. You feel very alone and helpless in this land of brown and gray. You have two weapons, a sword, and a bow. You can hold the sword up to the light to guide you to the next colossus which really isn’t that hard. Once you find it you have to figure out how to get on top of it and that’s the tricky part. Each colossus is completely different. Some are tall, some are fat, some are the size of a lion. These lumbering beasts will attack, but you need to find their weak spots. One colossus has weak spots on the bottom of its feet. When it walks you need to use your bow and shoot it. It then falls over and you can jump up and grab its fur and start climbing. Some aren’t so easy, in fact, there are no hints on how to get on top of these beasts. One tricky water serpent requires you to swim over him and then his tail will come out of the water so you can grab it.
The best part is when you get on these things. Each colossus is like a level in itself. You can climb around and hold the R1 button to stay on. They will try to shake you and your window to actually stab the glowing weak spots that are really small. You have a stamina meter and when it depletes you let go and fall back down. This can be really frustrating if getting on top of the Colossus is already frustrating or a long fiasco. As you slay these monsters your stamina and health increase, but you still need to watch out. The worst part about the game is the God-awful controls. They just suck and the game mechanics are sluggish and unresponsive. If it weren’t for this the game would be perfect. Wander’s animations are a bit jerky and when the colossi shake you and your stamina is dropping you just want to charge your stab and kill it, but sure enough, you get shaken again right as you start to charge. Wander flops around and it just feels sluggish. When you try walking on the colossus Wander will fall and tumble, sometimes right down to the ground. I almost threw my controller several times because of this. You will mainly die because of the mechanics, not your skills.
Let’s talk about your horse. Aggro is the main character, but I felt like I was driving a Mac truck. He won’t move if you push the stick forward, instead, you have to mash X and it takes forever for his momentum to get going. You can only tap the stick left and right to steer him, but he moves too quickly and runs right into walls, which he then stops on a dime and turns completely around. Maneuvering through tight areas is a serious pain. The horse controls are just terrible. This is probably the only bad part of the game, there is nothing else like this game out there. The colossi themselves look fantastic and are just gigantic. You really feel helpless and wonder how you are going to take this thing down. It all adds to the foreboding atmosphere of the game, the loneliness, and helplessness that you feel throughout.
I have been wanting to review this game forever, and now I have the chance. I played this back in 2005 when it first came out and it was just unreal. SotC still has some of the best graphics to grace the PS2, it almost looked next-gen at the time. Of course, it suffered from the massive slowdown, but now we can play it with some extra graphical effects and at 60FPS. There’s not much of a story here, there never is with Famito Ueda’s games. You are a boy named Wander who brings a girl to a temple, a cursed land, and vows to destroy all 16 colossi in order to bring her back to life. The game has one of the most touching endings I can remember.
The game is very basic, you just head to each colossus and slay it. There is a huge open-world, but it is very barren and void of life, but that’s the way it is supposed to be. You feel very alone and helpless in this land of brown and gray. You have two weapons, a sword, and a bow. You can hold the sword up to the light to guide you to the next colossus which really isn’t that hard. Once you find it you have to figure out how to get on top of it and that’s the tricky part. Each colossus is completely different. Some are tall, some are fat, and some are the size of a lion. These lumbering beasts will attack, but you need to find their weak spots. One colossus has weak spots on the bottom of its feet. When it walks you need to use your bow and shoot it. It then falls over and you can jump up and grab its fur and start climbing. Some aren’t so easy, in fact, there are no hints on how to get on top of these beasts. One tricky water serpent requires you to swim over him and then his tail will come out of the water so you can grab it.
The best part is when you get on these things. Each colossus is like a level in itself. You can climb around and hold the R1 button to stay on. They will try to shake you and your window to actually stab the glowing weak spots are really small. You have a stamina meter and when it depletes you let go and fall back down. This can be really frustrating if getting on top of the Colossus is already frustrating or a long fiasco. As you slay these monsters your stamina and health increase, but you still need to watch out. The worst part about the game is the God-awful controls. They just suck and the game mechanics are sluggish and unresponsive. If it weren’t for this the game would be perfect. Wander’s animations are a bit jerky and when the colossi shake you and your stamina is dropping you just want to charge your stab and kill it, but sure enough, you get shaken again right as you start to charge. Wander flops around and it just feels sluggish. When you try walking on the colossus Wander will fall and tumble, sometimes right down to the ground. I almost threw my controller several times because of this. You will mainly die because of the mechanics, not your skills.
Let’s talk about your horse. Aggro is the main character, but I felt like I was driving a Mac truck. He won’t move if you push the stick forward, instead you have to mash X and it takes forever for his momentum to get going. You can only tap the stick left and right to steer him, but he moves too quickly and runs right into walls, which he then stops on a dime and turns completely around. Maneuvering through tight areas is a serious pain. The horse controls are just terrible. This is probably the only bad part of the game, there is nothing else like this game out there. The colossi themselves look fantastic and are just gigantic. You really feel helpless and wonder how you are going to take this thing down. It all adds to the foreboding atmosphere of the game, the loneliness, and helplessness that you feel throughout.
The graphics are superb even to this day. The PS3 version adds some texture filtering, and anti-aliasing, and of course, the frame rate is 60 now. There’s also some extra bloom added so the lighting looks great. However, despite all this greatness, the game is pretty short and you can beat it in about 5-6 hours. All you do is slay all 16 colossi and you’re done. However, it is a very memorable experience.
Overall, Shadow of the Colossus was a milestone for the PS2 and is still one of the best games ever made. The frustrating controls and game mechanics keep this game from being as perfect as all the rest. Have patience and just deal with it. Every PlayStation fan should play this game.
Ico is probably one of the most forgotten games in history. Being one of the first graphical powerhouses for the PS2, it proved that you don’t need a complex story and characters to have a good game. All you know is that you are a boy named Ico who is trying to save a girl named Yorda from her evil mother queen and escape from the castle. You enter as a captured prisoner because you have horns. You then escape and find Yorda along the way. What made Ico such a big deal was that you led her around manually by holding R1. This forced you to become attached to her, and they rarely spoke.
This game was way ahead of its time. That’s probably why people passed it by for Jak & Daxter and other PS2 games at the time. The game consists of some pretty cleverly designed puzzles that involve pulling switches, climbing, cutting ropes, and swinging on chains. You also push and pull the occasional block. The level design is really well done, but there were a few obscure puzzles like jumping off of a chain to knock a bridge down. This is completely against the game’s mechanics so you would never know to do this. Leading Yorda around sounds annoying, but it prevents you from having to rely on the already shoddy AI. The game mechanics work well enough in design but they are sloppy and frustrating to deal with.
When you jump Ico tends to clip into ledges and ladders making you have to slightly adjust him until he latches on. If you press the analog stick just slightly and jump he will jump 20 feet causing you to jump off ledges or fall down to your death. There’s just so much bad collision detection and the animations are janky and not well done. When you drag Yorda around her arm looks like a flopping noodle that can go through her body. I know this was originally designed for PS1 before the game jumped ship to PS2…but still. There are other mechanics like setting your sword down to pick up a giant stick, light it on fire, then set off a bomb. Sometimes you have to toss these before they blow you up. Fun game mechanics and all but they repeated through the entire game making you be grateful for the short length (just about 4 hours).
A lot of times I didn’t know where to go because the middle of the game has two areas that are identical, but just slightly different. The constant backtracking can confuse you requiring a walkthrough. There are no boss battles to speak of except the final boss, but the combat is so frustrating and annoying. Ico swings his sword around aimlessly and you can’t move while doing so. The AI jumps away as soon as you run after it so if you get stuck in a three-hit combo you get knocked down and Yorda gets dragged away. You can’t die in this game during combat, but if Yorda gets dragged underground you’re done. You can pull her out of the hole, but sometimes a shadow creature will hit you and knock you back then you have to suffer the long animation of getting up. A lot of games had these animations (The Mark of Kri) and I don’t know why. It breaks the fluidity of everything. Once you get the hidden mace in the game combat is really easy, but you still get annoyed by the creatures constantly backing up when you approach.
The graphics look great with the new HD upgrade, but even back then they were amazing. A lot of textures have been slightly upscaled and some bloom and HDR have been added for better lighting. You can still notice the game’s age during up-close shots of areas. Textures are muddy and so blurry they don’t even look like what they are representing. The main thing is that you can pan the camera around more now that the resolution has been bumped up making navigation easier. This is how you do HD upgrades right.
Overall, Ico is a great game, but the dated mechanics really show their age. If you can look past all this you are in for a great, albeit short, game but don’t expect engaging characters or a complex story. There are 4 cutscenes in the whole game, but this is about the journey and not the story.
Shadow Hearts is a JRPG that is all about politics and religion, of course, what JRPG isn’t? Covenant has a very interesting story with memorable characters, however, the pacing is a bit off. You play as Yuri, a young man stricken with a curse called the Mistletoe. This locks out his inner powers inside his heart and you are trying to find a cure for it. Along the way, you meet many people with various abilities for combat. The story is a bit involved and complicated, but it is interesting. I could try to explain it, but it would take nearly 3-4 paragraphs just to do that.
Let’s start with the combat. Shadow Hearts uses a ring system where a needle spins around a ring and you press X when it falls in the yellow and red areas. Each character has different-sized hit areas and different amounts. You want to try to get it in the red which is a strike zone that does extra damage, but it can be hard because some characters’ strike zones are small 2 pixel slivers. You can acquire expansions for these areas and you can customize your ring. Once you get good you can increase the number of hit areas, but they become smaller. This ring is used for everything from items, special attacks, and magic. In Shadow Hearts, you can do combos with characters by watching your battle turns at the top. Use a four-player combo and you can do massive damage and special combo magic attacks. One thing I really like about this game is that you aren’t stuck with specific characters that only do magic. Everyone can do it because you use magic crests which have different magic attacks that are both offensive and defensive. Some character just has more MP than others. This means your heavy hitter can also cast Raise Up without compromising anything.
Covenant is mainly comprised of boss battles. They are very frequent but are the most fun in the game. Each is different, some are weak to combos, special attacks only, and some are just weak to physical damage. However, the ring system makes you solely responsible for whether or not attacks hit or miss. If you don’t focus and miss part of the ring you don’t attack. This also makes the combat more engaging because you aren’t just flipping through menus. Yuri has the ability to switch between fusion forms which are elementals. This allows you to target a weakness on the fly. However, everybody has SP which are sanity points and deplete with each turn. When you run out characters go berserk and JRPG players know that is not a good thing. You have to use Pure items to restore these points, but this only becomes an issue early in the game. Once you level up enough you get enough SP that it won’t run out before a boss battle is over.
The amount of grinding in the game is minimal. Since you mostly fight bosses you get globs of XP all the time, so just from bosses alone, you can get to level 40. There are random battles but they aren’t as frequent as most JRPGs, but they still exist. Random battles are the single thing that keeps me away from these games. It is lazy game design and just needs to end. There are puzzles in the game that can be kind of challenging, but the mazes are frustrating. Running around trying different combos on different floors is just a nightmare. Partner this with random battles and you are bound to toss your controller a few times.
There are side quests, but they are pretty weak and not really worth it. You usually just get items for it or armor, but these armors can be bought later on, usually just after the next boss fight or two. A lot of the character’s abilities have to be learned from fighting people in the game or finding them which I found irritating. I’d rather just learn them from leveling up. Karin’s sword arts are found by talking to certain people so if you miss them then your special attacks will always be weak, not fun. Besides all that this is a more tolerable JRPG, even people like me who hate them will enjoy this game.
The graphics at the time were good, and there is a nice art style here. The CGI cutscenes are nice, but there aren’t enough of them. The voice acting is spotty where a couple of characters sound good, but the rest sound like cheesy high school students in a play. That is usually expected in English versions of JRPGs, especially back then. I would play this game for the story and fun boss fights. Skip all the side quest crap and just finish the story. There’s nothing worthwhile in spending 20 extra hours on some items.
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