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Driver: driving through roadblocks

Posted on 09/10/2024 Written by Xexyz

The tutorial level of Driver is infamous for being an overly restrictive gateway, preventing many people from ever accessing the main game. I learnt about this many years after the game was released, and indeed many years after I’d played it. I can’t recall if I found the tutorial difficult; I just recall that I never managed to complete the final level, which I believe was about escorting the president somewhere.

Anyway. I discovered that I have Driver installed on my Playstation 3, yet I hadn’t played it. It seemed an ideal thing to try. I loaded the game up, somewhat trepidatiously, and started driving around the car park.

It took me four attempts. The first failure was on the slalom, which I quickly realised was because you have to come back on yourself and get around to your starting point. The second and third failures were on the brake check, which I think wasn’t marked off because I wasn’t going fast enough. Other than that, it was pretty simple.

Moving onto the game, and things became even easier on the first mission, with a single police car giving me chase towards the end of my journey. The second mission, delivering a tainted car for dismantling, was more difficult, with the police setting up a roadblock on one of the major roads. Luckily I skipped straight through that, and it caught the police cars which were chasing me instead.

It’s not easy to capture exciting pictures of this game.

It looks pretty basic nowadays, and the comparisons to GTA3 don’t do it any favours. At its heart, though, this is a fun game which I’ll probably play more of, given its convenience.

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: PlayStation, Playstation 3

Road Rash: it’s a big game

Posted on 07/10/2024 Written by Xexyz

I saw Road Rash for the Playstation on the shelf at CEX, which seemed an ideal opportunity to try out the last of the sprite scaler games in the series (using the backwards-compatible PS3 for a decent output). Having previously played, and completed, Road Rash, Road Rash II, and Road Rash 3 (yes, the numbering scheme is annoying) on the Mega Drive, I’d never experienced the other game in the series – confusingly called Road Rash, and released on the 3DO and later the Playstation and Saturn. Even more confusingly, this was released before Road Rash 3, making this the third game and the Mega Drive RR3 the fourth game.

Road Rash for the 32-bit consoles is certainly a step up in graphics from Road Rash II, with a combination of colourful opponents, smoother scaling for roadside (and on-road) obstacles, and the use of textured polygons for buildings. It runs at a faster pace, and feels a lot more responsive while riding the bike, although there remains a bit of a lag when hitting the punch button. It is still a lot of fun, but there are a few things which feel a little off – maybe because the 16-bit games are so ingrained in me.

First, while the graphics are certainly better, they’re nowhere near what the Playstation is capable of. This is probably a result of the game’s origins on the 3DO (and, apparently, the Mega CD). What is more odd is the variety of art styles throughout. The in-game graphics appear to be higher resolution pixel art, looking much better than the digitised riders in Road Rash 3. These compare well to the grainy pink-tinged videos shown before and after races. Both these are preferably to the awful caricatured cartoons used to illustrate menus and represent the other riders.

The videos have some of the worst acting committed to film

Second, there are some elements of the game which have been changed for the worse since RRII. One of the staples of the series is the small selection of riders who will catch up to you throughout the race. In the Mega Drive games there are typically three groups of riders – those in places 10-15, those in places 4-9, and those in places 1-3 – which are roughly grouped throughout the stage. As you make your way past each group, you then have a break where one of the overtaken riders comes back and pulls up beside you, trying to knock you off – giving you an opportunity to punch them back, take their weapon, or push them over. That doesn’t happen here; no riders caught back up with me after being overtaken unless I crashed, and as a result I never actually knocked anyone off their bike.

The weapons are treated differently. I seem to have started with a baseball bat, and as a result (and because of other riders not travelling alongside me) I can’t access any other weapons – I don’t even know if it’s possible to steal them. The baseball bat doesn’t seem to do a lot of damage at all, but since I never hit anyone more than once it’s academic anyway.

Third, the menus are really badly designed. There’s a huge lag between selecting something and the menu changing, and the menu tree is needlessly confusing. There are two modes you can choose from at the start of the game – Thrash and Big Game – although it seems as if you can change between them through the options menu at any point. Thrash is effectively a quick race, with no progression saved, although it does seem to keep track of which races you’ve qualified in. Big Game is the main mode where you must earn money and qualify to be able to buy better bikes to compete at higher levels. More focus is placed on Thrash at the start of the game, and then the options menus list options not available in that mode.

Those are all relatively minor complaints, and I’m pleased I got hold of this. I’m halfway through the second level now, having just got a new bike, and the police have finally properly turned up. Combined with denser traffic and narrower roads, this makes some stages a bit more of a challenge.

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: PlayStation, Playstation 3

Worms: stupidity kills

Posted on 04/06/2024 Written by Xexyz

For some unknown reason I have the Playstation version of Worms registered on my account, and so when looking over potential reasons to upgrade Playstation Plus I noticed I was able to download it to the PS4. And so I did.

I’ve not played the Playstation version before as far as I’m aware, but I put many hours into the Mega Drive version and also played the original Amiga game at Kevin’s house several times. There’s not a huge amount of difference, to be honest – the Playstation has some pretty cringy FMV segments, where the worms use a different art style to in-game – but the options and game types and presentation is all very familiar. I tried to set up a StOGS team, but fell at the second hurdle when I was told there was already a worm called “John” – part of the Beatles, of course. My team ended up being Timbo, Kieron1, Johnno, and Hiscock.

I chose initially to play against teams where the AI was set as “poor”. This was a mistake, because rather than making the game easier it seems as if the AI was programmed to use up airstrikes and teleportation in the first couple of goes, meaning that I often found that members of my team were killed before I even got a chance to move them.

Moving to compete against other teams, more average in skill, actually made the game easier. I wasn’t that easy to work out which ones to choose, mind – the only place the AI level is noted is in the team editor, and they’re not listed in order of difficulty, so you have to go as if to edit the teams, make a note on which to compete against, and then back out to the menu.

The game still works well, and benefits from a lack of bloat which later games have introduced – there is a focussed and tight selection of weapons here, making weapon drops genuinely exciting. I may suggest we play this next time we have an in-person games day.

It’s almost worth it for the logo nostalgia alone.

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: PlayStation, Playstation 4

PLAY Margate 2015

Posted on 23/08/2015 Written by Xexyz

This weekend I went to PLAY Margate, a games exhibition which is the little brother to equivalents in Manchester and Blackpool.  It was great; many different types of games all set up to be played with, random competitions, themed areas, and stalls selling stuff.  Obviously I didn't buy anything - cough - but I played plenty.

Chuckie Egg - BBC Model B

Justine's favourite game of all time, and it would have probably been great if I could find the key to go up ladders.  The joystick didn't work; I worked out that the keys V and N moved left and right, and the space bar jumped.  But standing in front of a ladder, I tried every key and none of them made me climb.   In desperation I tried every key on the keyboard, including the Break key which obviously quit the game.  I had to quickly search on the Internet how to restart it ...


Head over Heels - CPC 664

A game I've never given enough time to, but will certainly be doing so in the near future.  I started from the very beginning and realised that without graph paper I wasn't going to make a dent on the game.

Manic Miner - Spectrum

I've always found it overrated, but that might be because I didn't play it at the time and only experience it after being used to the platforming on consoles.  Fixed jumping paths and overly tight timing isn't a huge amount of fun.

Mine Storm - Vectrex

I've never played on a Vectrex, and was very pleasantly surprised with this.  Graphically it looks fantastic, and the way the game expands on the Asteroids template by introducing enemies that move towards you, fire back, or move quickly around the screen.  The controls were very tight indeed, and I managed to reach the fourth level before losing my first - and indeed my last - life.



PGR4 - Xbox 360

They had a competition for the best time around a certain circuit.  I only managed to get within 5 seconds of the winning time - I need more practice!

Hang On - Master System

Talking of competitions, there was a more formal competition where you had to record high scores for three different games.  Hang On was the first; I'd been playing the 3DS version a few days before so thought I would do OK but the Master System game just felt all wrong and as a result my scores weren't great.  I still got 28th highest score of the weekend, though!


Kung Fu Master - NES

Kung Fu Master was the second game, which I did rather better on despite never having played before - 6th highest of the weekend, and setting a high score on the machine I was using.  It's a relatively simplistic game, but I quickly worked out that punching an enemy gives 200 points while kicking gives only 100 - so I was able to work through levels building up points quickly.

Pop n Pop - PlayStation

Again, I'd never played this but quickly got the idea.  Challenge mode sees you working on two sides of the screen simultaneously, firing balloons upwards to form groups of three or more.  It took a little while but I soon worked out how to set up combos, which gave many more points and extended my playtime.  In the end I came 8th on the leaderboards.

Sonic the Hedgehog - Master System

I played through the Green Hill Zone mainly to amuse a couple of toddlers who were watching, managing to get through without dying.  Some people say that this game is better than the Mega Drive games; they are wrong.  It's still good though.



Sonic & Knuckles - Mega Drive

As part of the same display as the MS game, they had Sonic 2, Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic Adventure, Sonic and the Secret Rings, and Sonic Generations - representing the evolution of Sonic.   It's quite telling that the later games - other than Generations - were being less played.  I had a quick blast through the Sandopolis Zone, which is where the previous player had left off, and was reminded how much fun it was. I may need to go and play the Xbox 360 versions some more.

Street Fighter Alpha - Saturn

Similar to Sonic, there was a display showing the evolution of Street Fighter.  They didn't have a version of the original game on display, starting with SFII on the SNES, but I chose to try Alpha, a game I've not played before.  Initially I tried to play as Final Fight's Guy, before realising I didn't know any of his special moves and losing in the second fight.  I then tried Ken, and fought through four fights, before losing when the computer used the special gauge which is something I've never quite worked out.

Crazy Kong - C64

A hilarious rip-off on Donkey Kong, which basically changed the layout of some of the levels and made everything brown.  That latter bit may have been the C64 though.

Micro Machines 2 - Mega Drive

A couple of games against three random opponents in the multiplayer arena.  I won two and lost one, which felt like an achievement given that I had no idea of the courses before racing.

Defender - Arcade

I'm not sure I've played this before, actually - it was more complex than I was expecting. I'm sure I've played something very similar but without the humans to rescue, and given that that is a central mechanic, it must have been a different game.  Anyway, I played through a few levels of this before dying.

Crazy Taxi - Dreamcast

I got an A licence!  Mainly because I did a drift into a wall and sat there racking up points for 30 seconds, half way through my run.  It's amazing how much of the map I can remember, and despite the joypad having seen better days I managed a few limit cuts on the way down the hill.

Samba de Amigo - Wii

The music in the hall was too loud to be able to play this properly (or Donkey Konga, which kept hearing the clap sounds constantly), but I can't understand why they were showing the worst version of this.  Why not the arcade game, or the Dreamcast version?  And why has this never been released for Playstation Move?

Tomb Raider II - Playstation

A few minutes of exploring Venice, which took me back to the Christmas when I got my Playstation. I still prefer TRII to the first game, even if the rest of the world is the other way around.

Super Mario Kart - SNES

I still prefer later games to this.  Mario Kart 8 is just so much better.  They actually had quite a few of these in a display, but I've played the others to death and have them all at home anyway.


Random shooter game - 3DO

An illustration of how far first person shooters have become.  I have no idea what this game was, and searching for screenshots has turned up nothing. 


It was just a bit dull.

Pong - Binatone

A game against a random man.  We were both hopeless and unable to control the bat.


Arkanoid - Arcade

And another game I was hopeless at, having lost my ability to control with a paddle wheel.  After losing the first game very quickly, I lasted a bit longer on my second attempt and even got onto the high score table.  The last position, but still.

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: 3DO, Arcade, BBC, Binatone, C64, CPC, Master System, Mega Drive, nes, PlayStation, Saturn, SNES, Spectrum, Vectrex, Wii, Xbox 360

PLAY Margate 2015

Posted on 23/08/2015 Written by Xexyz

This weekend I went to PLAY Margate, a games exhibition which is the little brother to equivalents in Manchester and Blackpool.  It was great; many different types of games all set up to be played with, random competitions, themed areas, and stalls selling stuff.  Obviously I didn't buy anything - cough - but I played plenty.

Chuckie Egg - BBC Model B

Justine's favourite game of all time, and it would have probably been great if I could find the key to go up ladders.  The joystick didn't work; I worked out that the keys V and N moved left and right, and the space bar jumped.  But standing in front of a ladder, I tried every key and none of them made me climb.   In desperation I tried every key on the keyboard, including the Break key which obviously quit the game.  I had to quickly search on the Internet how to restart it ...


Head over Heels - CPC 664

A game I've never given enough time to, but will certainly be doing so in the near future.  I started from the very beginning and realised that without graph paper I wasn't going to make a dent on the game.

Manic Miner - Spectrum

I've always found it overrated, but that might be because I didn't play it at the time and only experience it after being used to the platforming on consoles.  Fixed jumping paths and overly tight timing isn't a huge amount of fun.

Mine Storm - Vectrex

I've never played on a Vectrex, and was very pleasantly surprised with this.  Graphically it looks fantastic, and the way the game expands on the Asteroids template by introducing enemies that move towards you, fire back, or move quickly around the screen.  The controls were very tight indeed, and I managed to reach the fourth level before losing my first - and indeed my last - life.



PGR4 - Xbox 360

They had a competition for the best time around a certain circuit.  I only managed to get within 5 seconds of the winning time - I need more practice!

Hang On - Master System

Talking of competitions, there was a more formal competition where you had to record high scores for three different games.  Hang On was the first; I'd been playing the 3DS version a few days before so thought I would do OK but the Master System game just felt all wrong and as a result my scores weren't great.  I still got 28th highest score of the weekend, though!


Kung Fu Master - NES

Kung Fu Master was the second game, which I did rather better on despite never having played before - 6th highest of the weekend, and setting a high score on the machine I was using.  It's a relatively simplistic game, but I quickly worked out that punching an enemy gives 200 points while kicking gives only 100 - so I was able to work through levels building up points quickly.

Pop n Pop - PlayStation

Again, I'd never played this but quickly got the idea.  Challenge mode sees you working on two sides of the screen simultaneously, firing balloons upwards to form groups of three or more.  It took a little while but I soon worked out how to set up combos, which gave many more points and extended my playtime.  In the end I came 8th on the leaderboards.

Sonic the Hedgehog - Master System

I played through the Green Hill Zone mainly to amuse a couple of toddlers who were watching, managing to get through without dying.  Some people say that this game is better than the Mega Drive games; they are wrong.  It's still good though.



Sonic & Knuckles - Mega Drive

As part of the same display as the MS game, they had Sonic 2, Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic Adventure, Sonic and the Secret Rings, and Sonic Generations - representing the evolution of Sonic.   It's quite telling that the later games - other than Generations - were being less played.  I had a quick blast through the Sandopolis Zone, which is where the previous player had left off, and was reminded how much fun it was. I may need to go and play the Xbox 360 versions some more.

Street Fighter Alpha - Saturn

Similar to Sonic, there was a display showing the evolution of Street Fighter.  They didn't have a version of the original game on display, starting with SFII on the SNES, but I chose to try Alpha, a game I've not played before.  Initially I tried to play as Final Fight's Guy, before realising I didn't know any of his special moves and losing in the second fight.  I then tried Ken, and fought through four fights, before losing when the computer used the special gauge which is something I've never quite worked out.

Crazy Kong - C64

A hilarious rip-off on Donkey Kong, which basically changed the layout of some of the levels and made everything brown.  That latter bit may have been the C64 though.

Micro Machines 2 - Mega Drive

A couple of games against three random opponents in the multiplayer arena.  I won two and lost one, which felt like an achievement given that I had no idea of the courses before racing.

Defender - Arcade

I'm not sure I've played this before, actually - it was more complex than I was expecting. I'm sure I've played something very similar but without the humans to rescue, and given that that is a central mechanic, it must have been a different game.  Anyway, I played through a few levels of this before dying.

Crazy Taxi - Dreamcast

I got an A licence!  Mainly because I did a drift into a wall and sat there racking up points for 30 seconds, half way through my run.  It's amazing how much of the map I can remember, and despite the joypad having seen better days I managed a few limit cuts on the way down the hill.

Samba de Amigo - Wii

The music in the hall was too loud to be able to play this properly (or Donkey Konga, which kept hearing the clap sounds constantly), but I can't understand why they were showing the worst version of this.  Why not the arcade game, or the Dreamcast version?  And why has this never been released for Playstation Move?

Tomb Raider II - Playstation

A few minutes of exploring Venice, which took me back to the Christmas when I got my Playstation. I still prefer TRII to the first game, even if the rest of the world is the other way around.

Super Mario Kart - SNES

I still prefer later games to this.  Mario Kart 8 is just so much better.  They actually had quite a few of these in a display, but I've played the others to death and have them all at home anyway.


Random shooter game - 3DO

An illustration of how far first person shooters have become.  I have no idea what this game was, and searching for screenshots has turned up nothing. 


It was just a bit dull.

Pong - Binatone

A game against a random man.  We were both hopeless and unable to control the bat.


Arkanoid - Arcade

And another game I was hopeless at, having lost my ability to control with a paddle wheel.  After losing the first game very quickly, I lasted a bit longer on my second attempt and even got onto the high score table.  The last position, but still.

Filed Under: Gaming Diary Tagged With: 3DO, Arcade, BBC, C64, CPC, Master System, Mega Drive, nes, PlayStation, Saturn, SNES, Spectrum, Vectrex, Wii, Xbox 360

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94: Secrete Yellow Ooze From Their Knees
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