(Retro) What have you been playing this week? Vol.2

[fallenangle]

I use a SE177FP Dell LCD 5:4 monitor for retro-gaming which, contrary to its name ID, actually has a 19" diagonal. It was used but well cared for when I bought it over 8 years now.

Two years ago I saw a slightly later version of the the same monitor on sale at CEX with fixed silver stand and cables for 75p (yes just 75p).

I bought it on the spot. Not good cosmetically and has some screen surface smears but once working you don't notice that.

Silver stands I dislike too and I bought a used Dell black height and angle adjustable one just like I use with the other monitor. With delivery it cost about twenty times more than the screen it supports.

20", which with a 4:3 CRT is going to be 19" or less diagonally, I think is still pretty much ideal for desktop use. If you think about it the ubiquitous 23" - 24" WS also has a similar screen height (11" - 12") too, that is no coincidence.

[Leon Retro]

20", which with a 4:3 CRT is going to be 19" or less diagonally, I think is still pretty much ideal for desktop use. If you think about it the ubiquitous 23" - 24" WS also has a similar screen height (11" - 12") too, that is no coincidence.

I think a 20" 4:3 screen is similar to a 26" widescreen. I find it a bit big when I'm sitting a couple of feet away, but it's not too bad. Being able to rotate it is a nice bonus.

[fallenangle]

Been working my way through an occasional replay of Xbox Rayman 3 - Hoodlum Havoc over the past couple of weeks.

Looks great and I'm playing it now with the WS patch too.

Annoying game at times, due as usual in 3D platformers to an unhelpful camera, it feels and looks almost deliberately so in some cases. But that's a small black mark, like the unrelentingly childish characters and story. The gameplay is what matters and that is still top notch in its genre and far from easy with some really well designed and imaginative platforming puzzles to get to grips with.

[Cepp]

Started Tomb Raider Anniversary and I'm really struggling with the camera. You can move it with the right stick but it also moves on it's own when you move Lara with the left stick. It's incredibly disorientating and I don't think you can disable it.

[fallenangle]

I don't remember TR: Anniversary having a particularly bad camera on PS2. I've encountered more memorably bad ones in my time that is for sure.

The old TR games (PS1) sometimes get stick for the camera but for their time and certainly in comparison to some similar contemporary games it was actually one of the best. It was consistent, predictable and the usual default position was often at the right distance and angle so you had no reason to want to change it anyway. It did/does not move significantly on its own accord.

That I well understand is very annoying and disorientating particularly in a purer platformer. That is the main criticism I have with Rayman 3's camera. Rayman 2's was the same too but even at their worst they're not suddenly rotating 180 degrees mid-jump or anything as bad as some of the things I've seen over the years.

The old TRs cameras were not perfect but put games like those to shame.

[Cepp]

I don't have any issues with the 90s era Tomb Raider game cameras tbh, they were manageable. The one in anniversary is just bad. I've figured out the best way to get around it is to always have Lara run with her guns out, that way you have full control over the camera and it feels much better. Doesn't help when jumping and climbing about of course but I'm making do.

-edit-
The game is also a glitch fest on PC and appears to be just a straight port of the PS2 game instead of the improved 360 release. I fell through the floor at the end of the final Greek stage earlier today and was forced to reload which took me right back to the start of the level. Now I'm stuck in Egypt, I need to pull a wooden door down using my grappling hook but it never connects. I thought I was going mad so checked YouTube and sure enough I'm doing everything right. I think I'm going to shelve this and give Legend and Underworld a miss as well. The platforming and puzzles are fun and maybe the console versions are better but as it stands I'm just going to play something else.

[fallenangle]

Not that it is much help I think I remember having problems with the grappling hook connecting in PS2 Anniversary too.

Legend I've never liked as it was the first game of the new Crystal Dynamics TR era. It rewrote the back story and turned the whole franchise into something more akin to a film spin off with generic third person shooting. However I enjoyed Anniversary because where it stuck to the original game's template it was pretty good and, occasionally, like the re-working of the iconic St. Francis' Folly level. I thought, outstanding.

I loved the start of Egypt too just for the way it looked.

Underworld is a curate's egg of a game, in some parts it is like Legend, a few sinkers but otherwise a generally inoffensive decent third person shooter. But there were hints that having worked on Anniversary CD had finally begun to understand what had made a good TR game. There were some sections, a weird platforming puzzle, some other platforming tasks and, particularly, an almost all underwater level that were genuinely old school TR in feel that I really enjoyed.

I have very mixed feeling about it. I'd argue it is CD's best completely original attempt to update old TR's type of gameplay. Of course it failed commercially and they ended up dumping everything and re-imagining TR again as something not quite entirely different. But if you enjoyed the old TRs then Underworld is worth a go.

[Cepp]

I've deleted the game now but that's interesting to know. Perhaps in the future I'll give Underworld a shot.

[roachie]

Been umming and arring about having another crack at connecting a PC to a CRT for MAME

This is REALLY worth doing!

[fallenangle]

Getting fed up with the final part of the boss fight in Xbox Rayman 3 which I've done before but this time the irksomeness of the camera positioning is bothering me more than I remember it doing before.

That's the problem with replays; you can breeze through parts that were tricky before simply because you know what's coming . But then you come to areas were the camera is seemingly deliberately placed to be as unhelpful as possible and purpose designed to cause failure even with that foreknowledge. Any failure pretty much dooms you to repeating the previous areas as well.

That harks back to the first PS Rayman game too. That is a tough 2D side on platformer but made excruciatingly hard by using exactly the sort of design philosophy: not showing you what you want/need to see so you're often jumping blind. You're forced to learn each section by rote bit by bit - I've never liked that in a game.

As a relief I've just started Xbox Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory for the first time. Not a big fan of the Splinter Cell series but its thoughtful and sometimes clever stealth gameplay, if that is how you want to approach it (and I do), is well done.

[Brad]

R-Type

Always loved this in the arcades. Don't remember in being this brutal though! Still plays really well and highly addictive. Will return for more.

[dataDave]

R-Type

Always loved this in the arcades. Don't remember in being this brutal though! Still plays really well and highly addictive. Will return for more.

Looking forward to this on Christmas day. Got this lot wrapped up and ready:

[Brad]

Good version on the PCE? I was playing the Amiga one. Awesome music, particularly the title screen and it looks and play great!

[dataDave]

Good version on the PCE? I was playing the Amiga one. Awesome music, particularly the title screen and it looks and play great!

Practically arcade perfect.

[Colin]

R-Type is just eternally classic. I still get a buzz every time that music kicks in on the first stage. Will never tire of it.