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With the half holidays coming up for many, if they haven't already started then it time to find something to keep the little and big ones assumed on those rainy and windy autumn days.
One thing you can do that doesn't cost the world is either dig out some
of those old games you haven't played in ages or take a trip to town
and have a look around the local charity shops for old computer games, which normally cost about a pound depending on the shop you go to. A modern machine will be able to play a five year old game with ease at more than reasonable graphics settings and decent frame rates.
One game I dug up from my collection was Tomb Raider Chronicles which was the fifth game in the Tomb Raider series, which started back on the original Play Station and the PC. The story starts with the funeral of Laura Croft, the lead character in the series, who was lost and presumed dead at the end of Tomb Raider The Last Revelation, commonly known as Tomb Raider 4, and takes you though a number adventures based on the memories of some of her friends that attended the funeral.
It was a game I remember playing when it first playing shortly after the game first came out in 2000 and it sold 1.5 million copies on all platforms which made it the second most successful game in the series, and it one of the best of the early games. The game play and story line are wonderful, although the graphics are a long way off what we expect today. Still it is well worth playing and even comes with a level editor so you can make up your own levels.
It is one of many classic games out there that are just waiting to be rediscovered and played again. A great way to amuse yourself for little or no money and if you get the games from charity shops you are giving to others too.
A new computer games shop is set to open in Oakham at the corner of Dean Street and the High Street. It will be the first time that people of Oakham have had somewhere they can buy computer games since the closing of Blockbusters back in mid 2011.
The owner of the shop is currently a regular on a Saturday at the Market in Melton and prior to that he shared a shop with a children clothes supplier in small shopping precinct off of Sherrard Street that connects to Windsor Street. Although the shop had many regular customers it was off the beaten track and didn't get many passing customers given its out of the way position.
The owner has a good reputation for selling and buying games at a good prices and he is very linkable. You always got a warm welcome if you visited the store in Melton or the market stall and I'm sure the same will be true in Oakham. On the whole the shop has always had a good stock of second hand games for a whole range of consoles and even sells DVDs.
Hopefully as the shop develops the owner will start branching into second hand consoles as well as games and maybe he will start selling accessories as well. I wish him well because he deserves some success and he tried so hard in Melton with stiff competition for an already established computer games shop, Voodoo games, and the over priced CEX.
Personally I recommend the shop for my own experiences of buying games from the store in Melton. It always been a pleasant experiance and I always thought I paid a fair price for a game.
Over the summer it has been fun revisiting some of those games that I have played in the past and enjoyed so much back then and now again today. The conclusion I have drawn is that there is much more to a good game than good graphics and wonderful sound, it all comes down to a good story and good game play. It makes sense of why a game like Minecraft which has become such a big hit with its blocky graphics, because a good game is more than that and why Microsoft paid a reported £1.5 billion for the company that produced it.
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The game that I'm playing at the moment in the limited tome I have is Tomb Raider III from back in 1998 on in its PC form and later in 1999 in its console form. In fact I'm playing the original Sony PlayStation version of the game rather than the PC version which you can still play today via the Steam Store which has be completely patched for today's computers and operating systems. This game is the third, in what turned out to be a long series of games that gone on which has millions of fans around the world that is still being produced today.
The first of the Tomb Raider series came out in 1996 and is said by some that PlayStation's success in the mid-1990s can attributed to this one game. The original game was set in a 3D world and involved the player leading the main character, Lara Croft, through a number adventures set in a series of tombs, and other locations. These adventures revolve around killing dangerous creatures or other humans, while collecting objects and solving puzzles to gain access to an ultimate prize, usually a powerful artefact.
The third game in the series starts millions of years ago, when a meteor crashed to Earth, landing in Antarctica, then a tropical paradise. It is during an excavation a team picks up unusual readings from the meteorite's impact zone. It is while instigating the readings the a body of a sailor who served on Charles Darwin's expedition on the H.M.S. Beagle discovered. Following clues from the sailor's journal, the researchers expanded their search beyond the impact crater to other parts of the globe, where the Beagle's crew travelled. One of these places is India where Lara Croft happens to be doing her own research, and so starts the game.
What I love about the series is of games is just the imagination of the developers, the game play, the stories and the music. The whole thing is the complete package. It takes you into the world of the lead character and makes you want to play and play from dawn to dusk and in some cases throughout the night as well. The are just amazing games from start to finish.
So why play it on a computer game console that was built between June 1997 and December 1997, well that is easy it was the sort of console the game was made for. It would be easy to play it on a modern windows machine and at resolutions the game would never have been played in, but it won't make a difference to the game play just the way it is controlled and looked. In fact it will be easier to play with a controller than a keyboard and mouse.
Hopefully before we get to Christmas I will have a chance to play some more games on my old PlayStation including some of great driving games like Gran Turismo 2 which sold over 9 million copies, and then there is the early releases 2D of the Grand Theft Auto series of games. Look out for more post coming soon.
Readers will know I have been amusing myself by playing some old Sony PSP games over the summer holidays. One of the games I picked out the box for this week was Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars. Unlike the other games in the series that have appeared over the years on the PSP, which have been cut down versions of the larger console and PC games, this one takes a step back to the original games on the PS One which a more two dimensional interface.
My first impressions of this interface were one of shock and disappointment at first but then I realised on such a small console with limited storage and memory it made complete sense to the developers and a way forward and not backward. It allows the game to have more complete and larger city and much more game play. It also works very well when you are use to it and allow the same fun levels as the main game, even if you view is restricted at times. In general the graphics are look great having a sort of slight comic book effect which mirrored through the cut scenes in the game.
You play Huang Lee who following his father's murder, has a simple mission: deliver an ancient sword to his Uncle Kenny to ensure his family retains control of the Triad gangs of Liberty City. Huang is a spoiled rich kid who expects everything to run smoothly, but his trip does not go exactly as planned. After being robbed and left to die, he will search for honor, riches and revenge in the most dangerous and morally bankrupt city in the world.
Like all GTA games you move from mission to mission with save points at the end of each mission. In between the missions you are free to roam the city collecting items, doing side missions of generally creating mayhem where ever you go. However you have to watch out the police always seem to be just around the corner and if you are seen breaking the law you will be in at best for a chase and at worse get yourself killed.
The game was well received in all it versions and scored in reviews consistently over 9 out of 10 and won a number of awards including the "Best Handheld Game" award at the 2009 Spike Video Game Awards. It was also nominated for various other awards in the same year. It also wasn't without it fair share of controversy because of its depiction of a drug dealing and a minigame that includes heroin and ecstasy use.
Well I looking forward to playing it again, it must be a year or so since I last played the game. If you don't have a Sony PSP you can always play the game on the following systes: Nintendo DS, iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.
It is all too easy to forget in this age of Xbox Ones and alike to disregard the old classic games of the past. Many of us will have old games sitting in boxes and gathering dust on some shelf forgotten and unplayed for many a year, or you will see them for sell in charity shops around the town.
Game of choice this weekend is "Return to Castle Wolfenstein" which was released back in back in Novemeber 2001 and later released on the original Xbox some two years later. I will playing the original PC version of the game that been laying around for the last 12 years. Although ancient the game playing is classic first person shooter and is based on the original "Wolfenstein 3D" from 1992 which itself was based on "Castle Wolfenstein" from 1981.
The story basic this: back 943 AD, a German Prince known as Heinrich dominated Europe an army of undead and Dark Knights created by black magic until a monk stopped Heinrich by sealing him in a deep underground tomb. A thousand years later the Second World War had started to go bad for Nazi Germany due to their defeats on the Eastern Front and in North Africa. So the Chief of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, founded an SS Paranormal Division in order to revive Heinrich so he could win the war for Nazi Germany. Your task in the game is to stop Heinrich Himmler and his plans before it is too late.
Although on considered average at the time of its release by a number of magazines, I can still remember thinking it was a very good at the time, something that is backed up my players review scores of the game over thee years. Personally I am really enjoying playing it again and it hasn't disappointed the memory of when I first played it.
It is to forget in these days of instant entertainment on your smart phone the games and machine of the past that gave us so much pleasure. Games like Gottlieb Pinball Classics on the PSP, Everybody's Golf, Medievil Resurrection and even the Grand Theft Auto series of PSP games.
Of all the games I love Gottlieb Pinball Classics, it has to be one of my favourite games because it something you can pick up and play and put down agin when something else comes along. I can remember in the past being taken with the game and playing it on holiday in the quieter moments during the evenings to unwind and relax from the day. Back then I use to have competitions playing the game with other people, both of us trying to get the high score on the "Big Shot" table.
I never forget the first time I saw Medievil Resurrection which was one of the early games released for the PSP with games like the incredible Wipe Out and I was amazed at what such a tiny machine could do. Of course things have moved on from there with the games you can play on your phone being incredible, but then your phone won't let you play form between four to six hours without running out of battery which in my view is still an important feature of being able to play portable games.
Having charged my PSP I'm looking forward to playing those old games again. In all I have around 50 games and with games second hand from £2 to £5 there still lots of fun to be had from the old machine.
Even in the days of HD television and retina displays there is still a lot to be said of the old games of the past. They might seem so complete as the games of today but the game play can be just as good if not better at times.
Yes the graphics of GTA San Andreas on the original XBox are not even close to those of GTA5, which I have recently been playing on the XBox 360, but then the game play isn't that much different. The later is just more polished and less crude.
For me the summer holidays are coming up and as a break I going to do some old style retro gaming to make me smile, given it is the cheapest way to get some entertainment and it will be a real blast to the past.
After all what else can you do when you have loads of old games you haven't played in ages just sitting around and you can't do the tings you really want to do for whatever reason.
Years and years ago I use to play Morrowind (The Edler Scrolls III) on the orginal Microsoft Xbox as well as the on the PC, and enjoyed the freedom it gave you over similar games of the time such as Arx Fatalis. So when I came across a cut price copy of Oblivion (The Edler Scrolls VI) the next in the series it was a must buy and so far I haven't been disappointed in the game play or the graphics.
At the moment I'm only at the start of the game but after a long introduction the game opens out into an expansive world where you are free to roam around or play the storyline. It is well worth its budget price and it is sure to keep me busy for quiet awhile. If you like adventure games it has to be a must buy.
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