Revisiting the World of Warcraft

I don't know, if you know, but a few years ago, I was playing World of Warcraft like 8 hours a day. The Burning Crusade expansion just came out and a friend of me and myself have been playing free to play mmos for a long time. The next step of course was then to upgrade to World of Warcraft. I think we played for a good 2 years with a few breaks inbetween and it was awesome.
Then Wrath of the Lich King was announced. My friend wasn't playing anymore and I got bored, so I quit. Funny enough I got invited to the Wotlk beta, but it was just "okay" and didn't keep me playing.

Fast forward to 2012.
Blizzard announced the 4th expansion Mists of Pandaria. I hear from forums and other places, that the game isn't as good, as it used to be. Now, the friend I was playing with for the 2 years sends me an old picture collage I made, with screenshots of us and other stuff. 

This used to be my wallpaper

NOSTALGIA OVERLOAD!

Luckily, I was not stupid enough, to reactivate my old WoW, or now battlenet, account. I made a new one with which I could play till level 20, which is a nice addition by the way. While downloading I noticed, that you could already start the game and even play. I was confused, but when I created my new Tauren Druid, I knew what was going on. The downloader downloads the important parts first, for example the area you play in right now and the character models, that are there. Another pretty cool addition I must say again. But for the last time.

While playing, the first thing I noticed was the incredible help the game gave you. Back in the day, YOU had to find all the enemies or allies to complete the quest. Now, the game throws it literally in your face. Every enemy is marked on the minimap, so you can just grind all the quests, instead of having to think about it before. The UI is totally different, having adapted lots of addons, which you had to download manually before. Which is bad, because earlier you could choose yourself, what you wanted and the UI wasn't ugly too.

After meeting up with my friend in Undercity and literally just standing beside each other, I logged off again and deinstalled the game. I wish they didn't simplify the game like it is. It was good how it was. And that's not just nostalgia goggles. I played on a Burning Crusade private server for a few minutes after that and it was a better experience than what WoW is right now.

 

Do yourself a favor and don't waste your money. I'm glad I didn't.

The Future (Nostalgia Sunday)

No, this is not a Nostalgia Sunday about a game called "The Future". Right now, I'm running out of ideas for games I played back in the day and would fit in this segment. There are still a few left, I could do in the next weeks.
Also, I finally got an internship in a company, where I will also start an apprenticeship in a few months. It will get tough to write these blogposts, but I'll try my best. Maybe I'll reduce the amount and post a Nostalgia Sunday every two weeks. I don't know, how it will work out. Time will tell and I'll keep you informed.
What I'm certain about though, is that I'll post more gameplay videos. The recording setup looks good and I play more games recently (that's definatly cool). So look forward to that.

Nostalgia Sunday: EyeToy: Play

EyeToy: Play

I thought this was so revolutionary back in the day. Well, it kinda was. The whole camera thing and without a controller was new and innovative. Alone this game was not so much fun though. Playing with friends and fooling around made it awesome. But I guess playing with friends is always more fun.

The Story:

Pictures of EyeToy: Play are hard to find, so take this Asian screaming as excuse.

You're looking for a story in this game? Ha! There is none! Only the one, you make up for yourself.

The Game:

The game had 13 mini-games to choose from, including "Plate Spinner" pictured above and "Kung Foo" pictured in "The Story". All these games were different from each other and concentrated either on your reaction or your speed. The camera made the controller useless. Everything was controlled by yourself. Apart from the mini-games, there were also a simple video recorder, or a "picture distorter", which was no real game, but more like a test for the game mechanics. It would spawn balloons for example, which reacted to your movements. This was basically all of the game, but it was fun. Atleast for a few months and ofcourse with friends.

Prequels and Sequels:

EyeToy: Play was pretty successful, so why not cash in on the whole thing and make several sequels, which all featured new games, but were practically the same. No, not really. EyeToy: Play 2 improved on the first game and the third did on the second in small parts. I only had the first one, so I can't talk about the others. It's easy to see, that Microsoft wanted to do something like EyeToy themselves, which resulted in the Kinect. The Kinect though is way more advanced, since it can detect the room in 3D, while the EyeToy only did it in 2D. I don't even have a Kinect, so I can't talk about it much either. I'm such a competent blogger.

PS2 is gone. There's no way to emulate this. I think I don't even want to. The game looks pretty boring to todays standards.

Nostalgia Sunday: XIII

XIII

This was a great game for me back in the day. The comic look was cool and multiplayer was really fun, even if only two people were playing. The story was interesting and compelling. I would have finished the game, wouldn't it have been for a part in the game, where I had to hide and always got spotted, making me hate this game. Weird.

The Story:

You, XIII, wake up on a beach, with no memory of anything. While trying to recover, people arrive with a helicopter and guns, trying to kill you. The only thing to do, is to defend yourself and find out, what has happened, that erased your memory. If I told you more, it would destroy the meaning of finding out, what XIII forgot. The story is good and is adapted from the comic book series with the same name "XIII". The game though only consists of the first 15 issues of the comic book.

The Game:

The picture above already shows the comic book look, or so called cel-shading. When something explodes, or someone is walking towards you, the sounds will be visualised, just like in comic books, with a "BLAM" or "KABOOM". Other than that, it is a normal first person shooter. What most other games might not have, is the type of armor you can wear, being a helmet and a vest, which can be picked up from dead enemies, or other places. The levels vary all from the other, while XIII tries to find out, what has happened to him. Apart from the singleplayer, there is also the multiplayer, giving you the traditional game modes like Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch or Capture the Flag, and console specific game modes like Sabotage (Xbox, PC), The Hunt (PC, PS2, Gamecube)and Power-Up (PC, PS2).

Prequels and Sequels:

While the game XIII got fairly good reviews, it wasn't a financial success, so no real sequels were made. The only thing that came out and called itself "XIII 2", was a cellphone game. Eight years later though, the publisher Anuman released a adventure game under the name "XIII: Lost Identity". Rather than a sequel, it was a reimagining in point and click style. I never knew it existed and most people propably didn't too. I don't know how successful it was, but I think, it wasn't that much.
Check out the launch trailer here:

While I don't have this game for the PS2 anymore, I have it for the PC. I played it some time ago, but haven't since. I definatly enjoyed it.

Nostalgia Sunday: Driver 2

Driver 2

This game was definatly part of my childhood. Even though most reviewers didn't like it, I had so much fun with it. Walking through the cities and finding new stuff, exploring new areas was the most fun part. Back then, I didn't use the internet much, so it was a much better experience. Of course the driving was fun too, and I liked the story. But more on that below.

The Story:

The story takes place in four cities: Chicago, Havana, Las Vegas and Rio de Janeiro. The Undercover cop Tanner and his partner Tobias Jones are trying to find and capture a guy named "Pink Lenny", who is the only witness of a shooting in a bar, which he could escape. They find him and ask him about it. He tells them, that the killers were after him and not after the other people in the bar. Apparently he is laundering money for Solomon Caine, one of the highest mobsters from Chicago to Las Vegas. The people he met in the bar were brazilian though, which makes it appartent, that he double crossed him with Avaro Vasquez, who wants to expand his business from Rio to the USA. A huge war between those two is about to explode. 

The Game:

The missions mostly consisted of "Follow that car", "Ram that car", or "Escape the police". You had a time limit most of the time, which could get pretty frustrating. Also there were some "on foot" missions. Apart from the story mode, you could get in a "free roam mode", which let you explore the cities. I don't remember much, because it's so long ago, when I played this game the last time, so I can just hope, you understand, when I say, this was a classic "driving game" game, with on foot segments. It also featured a two player splitscreen mode, which was a nice addition.

Prequels and Sequels:

Before a game with a "2" at the end, there is of course the first one, "Driver". While I never owned the game, I remember going into a shop one time, where the demo of the game was available to play. Now, the demo of course started with the infamous parking lot tutorial. I never got it done, making me not want to buy this game. After enjoying Driver 2, I was looking forward to Driv3r. Smart move by me, I lent it first from a video game rental store. Man, was I dissapointed. It tried too much to be a GTA, rather than to be a Driver. The weapons were unnecassary and I remember it being very glitchy. After that game, I didn't care about Driver games anymore, so "Parallel Lines" totally went under my radar. The latest game in the franchise though, Driver San Francisco, sparked my interest. I played it first on the Gamescom in 2011 and then later tried out the multiplayer demo on XBox Live. It's a good game, with the cool "Shift" feature, which is a nice addition to the franchise. Something you should check out.

I'll propably try this game on an emulator again some time. Might be still good.

Nostalgia Sunday: Simpsons Hit & Run

Simpsons Hit & Run

While not being the best Simpsons game there ever was, this game still has a place in my nostalgic games. I never finished it, but what I was playing was pretty fun. The humour was good and GTA like playing style was great. It had some issues though, that as a kid, you can't really make out.

The Story:

Strange things are happening in Springfield. Robot wasps swarm the city and Bart disappears, after being kidnapped by a tractor beam. The Simpson family tries to find out, what is going on, uncovering that it all was done by aliens (of course). If I'd tell you more, I'd spoil too much, but that's the story. You'll get missions by the citizens, which mostly consist of races, and by completing them, you advance in the story. But there's so much more to do, as you can see in the segment below.

The Game:

While not doing the missions, the citizens give you, you can explore the city. Hit & Run is a sandbox game, having many similarities to GTA 3, which came out two years before. Instead of police stars, you have the Hit & Run meter. If it gets full, the police will start to chase you, till it's empty again. It's pretty much the same as in GTA 3, with a little difference. You can also unlock new character models or cars, by collecting coins in every level. The game had some issues though, be it the graphics, or some gameplay issues, concerning the games AI or the camera.

Prequels and Sequels:

The Simpsons being so successfull, of course made a path for a lot of video game adaptations. The first game, released in 1991, was "The Simpsons Arcade Game". Being the year I was born, I never played this game at the time and didn't till today. It has been released recently for Xbox Live Arcade, so it might be worth a play. Over the years many other Simpson games were released, ranging from platformers, to racing and sports games. Some where known for their incedible difficulty, others were just bad. In 2007, "The Simpsons Game" was released, being the latest of the Simpsons games and being a good one. Reviews mostly gave it a 7/10, which in my opinion is pretty good. I haven't played it, but saw videos of it and the cutscenes in the game, which are just plain funny Simpsons humour. You might want to check it out, but don't take the word from me, because you know...I haven't played it ;).

Long story short: The game was sold along with my PS2, so I can't play it. I don't really have the ambition to either, because it doesn't look as good, as I might think.

Nostalgia Sunday: Tomb Raider

Yep, I still have the original CD!

Tomb Raider

When my father returned from a business trip to the Netherlands, he had a surprise for us. This game. It was a great surprise, because who would have known, we would have played this game for so long. Unfortunatly, my brother did overwrite a savegame at a point, where Lara is falling down and then dying, giving us no chance to continue. That pretty much killed it, though I think we saw the ending by using cheats.
The Story:

 

The story of the game is really complex, so I'll try to tell it as easy as possible.

After an eartquake and an explosion in Los Alamos County, New Mexico, an ancient device gets exposed, which, after being unlocked, reveals a person in suspended animation. This was the past and Lara, now in the present, gets the mission, to travel into the mountains of Peru to Qualopec, to find a mysterious artifact called Scion. After getting it she gets attacked by a man named Larson, which, after he's been beaten by Lara, tells her, that the artifact she has, is only one part of three. Lara now sets out into different areas in the world, to find the two other parts of the Scion and trys to stop the bad guys from getting it first. Sounds a little short and dumbed down, I know. Look the story up on Wikipedia, if you want a more detailed one. Check out the intro of the game below, if you like.

 

The Game:

The first time I shit my pants in a video game

Tomb Raider was one of the first 3D platformers, meaning you would have to overcome obstacles, by jumping from ledge to ledge and climbing along walls. While exploring different caves and areas, there are also enemies, which must be killed through the use of weapons, though that isn't the main focus of the game. You rather have to, like said above, get onto platforms and reach a certain object, being mostly an artifact. To get to them, you also have to solve puzzles, which makes those two the main parts of the game.

Prequels and Sequels:

Well, who do I have to tell, that there were many, many sequels to the original Tomb Raider. Guess what? I never played any of those, except a demo for Tomb Raider 2, if I remember correctly. From what I hear, the games got worse over time. In 2007, Eidos released a remake of the first Tomb Raider game, for the 10th anniversary of Lara Croft called "Tomb Raider Anniversary". I haven't got around to buying and playing it, mostly because I'm not really interested in those kind of games anymore. But what I'm looking forward to is the new Tomb Raider game, which should be a reboot to the series. We don't know much yet, but it takes a different approach, than the earlier games, making Lara younger and more vulnerable. It will be released 2012, if nothing goes wrong.

I haven't played this game for a good 10 years. Might aswell try it out again and see, if it holds up to today. It's an interesting and fun game after all.

Nostalgia Sunday: Lego Racers

Lego Racers

This was such a fun game, back in the day. Racing against other Lego characters with your custom build go-kart. I remember some of the "Boss Races" being incredibly difficult, but that just may be, because I wasn't as good at games as today haha.

The Story:

One of your opponents, Captain Redbeard

Rocket Racer, the best racer in the Lego universe, becomes bored and holds a challenge. He travels through time and space, to find worthy opponents he can race against. You now must defeat all the other bosses on their track, to be able to finally race against the champion, Rocket Racer. It's simple as that.

The Game:

The game is a simple "Fun Racer". You finish several laps on the track, while collecting power-ups, which you can use against other racers, or on your own car, making it faster for a short period of time, for example. There are also short-cuts, which you can drive through, when using a certain power-up. It's possible, and encouraged, to build your own car. At the beginning you only have a small amount of bricks to use on your car, but you get more, by completing the courses and beating the bosses. Aside from the "Story Mode" with Rocket Racer, there's also a time trial mode for every track. You'll race against Rocket Racers friend, Veronica Voltage, who will give you her car, if you beat her on the first three circuits. There's also a multiplayer mode for two racers, in which you race against each other in splitscreen mode. I wish I could tell you more, but that is the game. Even though it doesn't feature much, I still have fond memories of it, so it was a fun game for me.

Prequels and Sequels:

Like the picture above suggests, Lego made a second game out of the Lego Racers franchise, Lego Racers 2. It was for PC, Playstation 2 and Gameboy Advance. I never had it, so I can only tell you, what the Internet told me. It seems like, it's pretty much the same as the first game, with a little more. There are now more racers on the track, with much more unique cars. It is also more of an open world game, where you get missions, aside from the races. The ratings from gametesters were rather good, giving around 7.2 points.

The second game looks fun, but propably nothing I would play at this time. I think both Lego Racers games have aged badly, but that's personal taste.

Nostalgia Sunday: Need For Speed II - Special Edition

 Need For Speed II - Special Edition

I got this game way back before the year 2000. It was for sale in a discounter and I got this along with FIFA 98, on which I might do another Nostalgia Sunday. It was a real fun game and my neighbours had it too, so we could play against each other. These were the days, where Need for Speed games were still good.

The Story:

You had three modes to choose from: Single Race, Tournament, or Knockout Race. Single Race is pretty self explanotory. You can race any track and try to get familiar with it. In Tournament mode, you race against several computer driven cars and try to become first. After finishing every track in the tournament and being first, you unlock new tracks, cars and the Knockout mode. In the Knockout mode you race against other cars. Every round, the last car gets eliminated, till there's only one left, who will be the winner. That's your "story". Who would have thought a racing game had a story anyway? Who am I kidding, I'll get to those in the "Sequels and Prequels" part.

The Game:

At first, you can choose between two modes: Arcade and Simulation. They pretty much speak for themselves, as Arcade is more for fun racing and Simulation for a more realistic feel. You then can choose between your cars, which reign from a McLaren F1 to a Ford Indigo concept car. The tracks differ from each other too. They take you into a jungle, into snowy mountains and also in the australian Outback. There's also a multiplayer mode for Splitscreen racing, or through a LAN network. There was a special track only for LAN races, but I never got to see it unfortunatly. After a while we had the game I also found out about cheats from my neighbours. Not those were really fun. You'd enter a code in the main menu and your car would change to another one. There were cars like a VW Beetle, that weren't even available through the normal game. You could even change your car to a giant T-Rex, or a toilet. It was fun experimenting with this, as you could even get a car, that was so fast, you couldn't even control it.

Prequels and Sequels:

Now if you don't know about the Need For Speed series, you have been propably living under a rock for 20 years. From being a more arcady game, it changed to being a simulation several times and back. I didn't play all the games, but some which I really enjoyed. Need For Speed Underground for the PS2, was the first NFS game I got after NFS2. The new style it had, tuning and street races, was a fresh breath in the racing genre. The whole game was fun and NFSU2 even improved on its predecessor. Then was basically again a time, where I didn't play any NFS game till today. After NFSU2, none of the NFS games seemed to appeal to me and many people thought like that too, I think. It was the same game every year, with a stupid story and not much playtime. The newest NFS game, Need For Speed The Run, is the best example. You can play through it in two hours and the long awaited "on foot" segments where just quick time events. Hopefully EA can go back to its roots and make a good NFS game again. I'd buy it.

As the first picture shows, I still have the game. I can't run it though, because it won't work on Windows 7. I have the PSX game for an emulator, but it just doesn't feel right for some way.

Nostalgia Sunday Special: Demo Discs

Todays Nostalgia Sunday is a special one. I'm going to talk about what once was a key factor to buying games:

Demo Discs

This envelope used to hold all my PS2 demo discs.

Once upon a time, many, many, many years ago, publishers of video games would make a demo version of their game and put it on a so called "demo disc". This demo disc was mostly part of a magazine, which promoted a certain console (e.g. OPM). Some demo discs were only available through certain stores, or promotional stuff. This would ensure a hunt for certain demo discs, even though you could still buy and play the real game. Some demo discs are even worth hundreds of dollars today.

In this post, I will only talk about Playstation 1 and Playstation 2 demo discs, because that just were my consoles. I'll try to point out some games, that catched my attention and were good as a demo alone.

Playstation 1:

The first demo disc that comes to mind, when talking about the PS1, is the disc, which was included with the PS1 itself. Every country and every version of the PSX/PS1 had a different one. It was the only PSX/PS1 demo disc I had. I don't remember exactly what was on mine, but I remember one game:

WWF SmackDown!:
When we got the PSX at Christmas, the only games we had were Spyro 2 (Check out that Nostalgia Sunday) and the demo disc. It had several games and trailers, but this demo stood out. We weren't really into wrestling, but we knew it existed and this demo was fun as hell. The roster on the demo was awesome, as far as I remember it had The Rock, Kane, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Undertaker, Goldberg and Kurt Angle. Getting out of the ring and walking through the crowd was awesome too, because we never saw something like that and we found it by accident. The surprise was big as you can imagine. The gameplay itself was fun and even when I already had my PS2 with the SmackDown! vs Raw games, I still got back and played this demo.

Playstation 2:

The whole thing started with the PS2 demo discs. My aunt worked, and still works in a store, which sold those Official Playstation Magazines. When a copy of the magazine wasn't sold, we'd always get the demo disc. Fortunatly that was the case with almost every OPM. So we collected alot of these demo discs, with alot of game demos. Here are some, that were really good:

Red Faction (1 or 2, I really don't know anymore):

This demo literally blew my mind. At first, it looked like a normal FPS. Shooting people, doing objectives, getting to the end of the level. But then you throw a grenade or shoot a rocket launcher for the first time and BAM! Destroyable enviroment! In my mind this was so revolutionary, I hadn't seen anything like this before. Most of the time, I wasn't doing the objectives, but rather shoot a wall, to see what happens. It's too bad, I never bought the game, because I think it would be really fun. In Germany it even got on the index (you can't sell or promote the game publically), which meant, I would forget about it for a long time.

Amplitude:
This game was a rhythm game, something I have never played or seen before. You play the different instrumenttracks and hit the "notes" the intrument plays. You can make combos and such. It had two songs, Cherry Lips by Garbage and Quarashi's Baseline, which both were really fun to play. You could only play singleplayer, but that doesn't really matter. I really wanted to buy this game. I don't know why I didn't. It's weird, because my brother and me had arguments to our mother like "Finally we want to buy a game, that isn't a shooter or rated for a mature audience". Seems like it didn't work though. What this game achieved though, was that I noticed rhythm games. My favorite game right now and for the past four years is Rock Band (made by the same people at Harmonix as Amplitude) and it's sequels. I invested so much money in it, but it made me play real instruments like the guitar, bass and drums. I owe so much to it.

Timesplitters 2:
This game was litteraly a shock for me. Till then, I didn't play any horror games and Timesplitters 2 isn't a horror game by any means, but the demo scared the hell out of me. You start of in a "GoldenEye" like setting, where you have to infiltrate a base in snowy mountains. Everythings cool, till you have to activate something in the base (excuse my non knowledge of something I played ten years ago). Alarms go off, red lights surround the room and then: Zombies. I was scared as hell. I didn't expect anything like that, because at first it looked like a normal shooter. I was eleven years old or so too. I even tried to scare my friends with it and told them to play the demo. It wouldn't work on them though haha. I heard the game is really good and funny, so I might try it out, once I'll be able to emulate games for the PS2.

That's three demos now, that had an impact on me. There were more, but I think those three took the spot. I might do another Nostalgia Sunday based on this, if there's enough people, who want it.

Game Demos Today:

Today, there aren't demo discs anymore. Everything works through the internet. Consoles offer marketplaces, where you can download the newest demos, without buying a magazine. I think demos lost its charme. Back in the day, you couldn't get all those demos and it was something special. Today, it's always there for everyone. 

I already talked about this subject, so you might want to check out my blogpost about something I miss.

I hope you enjoyed this little special Nostalgia Sunday. Leave a comment, if you have any suggestions for new Nostalgia Sundays. I need to have played the games though, because otherwise it wouldn't be nostalgia ;).

Nostalgia Sunday: Cool Boarders 4

Cool Boarders 4

One of the first games we bought for the Playstation. It was a really fun game and also a real challenge. There was so much stuff, we didn't unlock and so much that surprised us, when we unlocked it. We didn't even know how to grind on rails, until a friend of mine told us to press the triangle button, who hasn't even played the game. There was so much different, when you played games as a kid. I think, if I played the game today, I would just rush through it. Back then, till we sold the PS, I didn't even "finish" the game.

The Story:

At first, you can choose between several snowboarders, choose your footing and customise your board. The campaign of the game consists of different challenges. There are several mountains you for example do slalom, time attack, or point challenges. If you win enough challenges and be the first place on that mountain, you unlock a new mountain and other stuff. That's basically your story.

The Game:

The game is your basic snowboard game. You do time attacks, point challenges, slalom etc. Apart from the normal challenges, you also have for example a track, where aliens invaded the place and you have to do tricks through rings. You can also unlock new characters, luck one called "Honey Bear", which is obviously a bear, who rides a treelog. Like almost any game back in the day, you have a multiplayer mode, which lets you do the challenges with up to four players. It's basic, but really fun. I don't know, if the game and its mechanics and modes still hold up today, but back then it was awesome.

Prequels and Sequels:

The "4" in the name indicates, that there are more Cool Boarders games...who would have thought that? There were Cool Boarders 1,2 and 3, which improved and added more stuff after another. There was also a "Cool Boarders Pocket", which was made for the Neo Geo Pocket Color. The last entry in the series was "Cool Boarders 2001", which was released on PS1 and, as first in the series, on PS2. I never played any of these games. I think Cool Boarders 4 was just enough, or well...you know...money as a kid was short. It's a shame the series ended so early. I'd like a new Cool Boarders game, with everything the old games had and new stuff added to the old.

I might aswell play this game on a PSX emulator again, since my PS is long gone, but I fear that it won't hold up today. It was a fun experience and I might keep it that way.

Nostalgia Sunday: James Bond 007: Nightfire

James Bond 007: Nightfire

I don't remember how I got this, but I was lucky to have it. The story was good, the gameplay partially too, but it all got topped by the multiplayer mode. I even bought a Multitap for my PS2, so we could play with four people. So many hours played, we created the mode "Snipertown", which was basically only sniper rifles on a map called Ravine. The map had 2 mountains, connected by a skyrail. So much fun...

The Story:

At the beginning, you start in France, where you have to protect Dominique Paradis with a sniper rifle from a helicopter, who is chasing after a truck with a stolen nuclear weapon. After you catch the truck, the real story begins. The story focuses on a multination corporation known as Phoenix, which is supposed to have been contracted to dismantle nuclear missiles and clean up nuclear power plants around the world. But Phoenix's intentions are, of course, evil to the core, and the company's leader intends to overtake an orbital missile defense platform and use it to essentially destroy the world. Your part, or better, Bonds part is it now, to stop Phoenix and save the world.

The Game:

The game offers you a variety of weapons to choose from, if you can find them in the levels and has also a large varitey of different places and missions you will visit in the campaign, like shown in the above picture. You'll visit Japan, Austria, the South Pacific and even Space. The controls would be something you'd have to learn these days. Todays standarts are left analog stick controls the movement and the right controls the view. Not in this game. You'll walk forward and back, and turn left and right with the left analog stick, and walk left and right, and look up and down with the right analog stick. Weird indeed, but it somehow worked.
Like said at the beginning, the multiplayer was AWESOME! The levels were cool and so were the weapons you could use. Nothing could go wrong. There was no internet for the PS2 back then, so it was all splitscreen. I miss those good old days.

Prequels and Sequels:

I never played the prequel Agent Under Fire, even though I wanted to buy it. But you know, money was short as a kid. A friend of mine had a Nintendo 64 and the game "The World is not enough", which also was awesome. Nothing tops splitscreen multiplayer. Of course there was "GoldenEye 007" before that, but guess what. I never played it. I always hear, it's the best 007 game, but I had my fun with the others, so I think I didn't miss out on something.
After Nightfire, if I remember correctly, the 007 games went Third Person with "Everything or Nothing". I think that was a bad move. I rented the game and played through on one weekend. It had coop too, but it just wasn't the same. 
Activision recently released a remade version of GoldenEye. I played a demo at Gamescom 2011 and the demo from Xbox Live, but it didn't really appeal to me. I guess it doesn't have the same charme as back in the day.

I don't know, if the new GoldenEye was a success, but I hope they will make another 007 game, with a great new story, not from the films, and in first person. Just like Nightfire was.

Nostalgia Sunday: Rollercoaster Tycoon

Rollercoaster Tycoon

One of the first games I ever got and one of the first games, I couldn't get enough of. It just was a game, you could do something new everyday. And to think, it was created mostly by only one man named Chris Sawyer, makes it even better, seeing the complexity and yet the user friendliness of the game. 

The Story:

The "stories" in this game are called scenarios. You can choose a park at the beginning, which has a goal you must reach, in a limited time. Mostly you have to have a certain amount of guests in your park, or lift the value of the park by creating more attractions and keeping it running smoothly. By completing certain scenarios, you unlock new ones. The standart game has 21, so you certainly won't get bored with it. The last park you will unlock is called "Mega Park" and gives you the simple objective to "Have Fun!", by unlocking every attraction and allowing you to build everything you want.

The Game:

Like said above, your goal is to create a successful park. You can do that however you like. You'll get a loan at the start, with which you can buy or build attractions, refreshment stands, items, such as banks, trash cans or flowers, to improve the visual quality of the park, or certain handymen, like entertainers, mechanics, or security guards. Everything has a certain purpose, mostly to keep the guests of the park happy, which means income. Every guest has a liking towards something, like thrilling rollercoaster rides, or a clean park. If you can satisfy all the guests, your park will become successful. But it doesn't end there. Most of the fun comes from building your own rollercoasters. It sometimes can be hard, but seeing the guests ride your own rollercoaster is something special.

The Sequels:

The first game had two expansion packs, which added new scenarios, attractions and items, which assured the longevity of the game. The second game, Rollercoaster Tycoon 2, which was released in 2002, improved mainly on the graphics side to the first game. It wasn't received too well by the fans of the first game, but outsold its predecessor, creating a new hype for the tycoon games. It also got two new expansion packs, with again, new scenarios, attractions and items. The third game in the series, Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, took a whole new turn, by adding 3D graphics and leaving the isometric view behind, which were part of the older games. It finally added a sandbox mode, which gave you the opportunity to give yourself as much money as you want and build, whatever you dreamed of. It also was possible, to import attractions and scenarios from other people, which created huge databases on the internet. Although it improved more on the first game than the second, it got lesser good ratings, because of the many bugs it had. RCT3 also got two expansion packs. The first was named "Soaked!", which added the option to build water parks and in general, water attractions. The second was called "Wild!", in which you could build your park like a zoo, adding safari rides and animals. A new game, called Rollercoaster Tycoon 3D, was announced in August for the 3DS. There's not much information on it right now, but Atari asked the fans on their forums, what they would like in the game.

Such a classic game, and I still have it. I have the original CD for the first game and from time to time, I play one or two of the scenarios. This game still hasn't got old and I wish for more tycoon games in the future. As I have no 3DS, I guess I'll have to wait, till they release a new PC version of the game.

Nostalgia Sunday: Grand Theft Auto Vice City

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

This has to be one of my favorite games of all time. I had it for the Playstation 2 and a friend of mine had it too, so it was always the first thing to do, when we met. Playing till you die and then it was your friends turn. Fun as hell. Storywise and Soundtrackwise an instant classic. This was and still is definatly a must have.

The Story:

The player takes on the role of Tommy Vercetti, a member of the Liberty City mafia released from prison in 1986 after serving only 15 years for killing eleven men. Tommy's old boss, Sonny Forelli, fears that Tommy's presence in Liberty City will heighten tensions and bring unwanted attention to his organization's criminal activities. To prevent this, Sonny promotes Tommy and sends him to Vice City under the guardianship of Mafia lawyer Ken Rosenberg to act as their buyer for a series of cocaine deals. During Tommy's first deal, an ambush by an unknown party results in the death of Tommy's bodyguards and the cocaine dealer. Tommy narrowly escapes with his life and loses both Forelli's money and the cocaine.
Here starts the story. You basically have to get the money and the cocaine back, that you lost on the deal. You help different people, get money, get known and get respect. After a while you become the biggest drug dealer in town, which Sonny Forelli obviously doesn't like. So while handling your own business you have to deal with Sonny too, which escalates in a final showdown.

The Game:

The game basically consists of completing missions, or doing whatever you want. It's a classic sandbox style game, where only your mind limits the experience. When you're not doing missions, you're finding and collecting new weapons, buy assets, or just start a rampage, which of course gets the attention from the local police and later from the military. Another thing that really stands out is the music. There are several radio stations, which all play classic songs from the 80's and before. The Soundtrack is so memorable, that you can suddenly find yourself in a car on the beach just listening to the music.

Prequels and Sequels:

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is the successor to Grand Theft Auto 3, which was the first title in the series, that introduced 3d graphics. The first two GTA games had a top down view. After GTA Vice City, Rockstar Games released Grand Theft Auto San Andreas, which had a more "Gangster" feel to it and added more Sandbox elements, like Body Building or tuning your car. GTA 3, Vice City and San Andreas used the same game engine, so there was time for a change. 2008 Rockstar Games released GTA IV, which used the new Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE). It took place in Liberty City, a rebuild New York. It looked better, had more minigames and sandbox elements, but lacked story and characters, even though it was praised by critics with flawless 10/10's. To this day I haven't beat it. On the 2nd November of 2011 Rockstar released a Trailer for the new GTA V. It will take place again in Los Santos, which was introduced in GTA San Andreas.

I still think GTA Vice City is the best in the series, because of the fond memories I have of it. I still have the PC version, which I play through from time to time and it still holds up today.