@JohnnyShoulder It’s crazy the number of big names all doing voices. They also deliver their lines well, compared to some celebs who phone it in, like Matthew Perry in Fallout New Vegas.
@nessisonett Never played that one but I've seen the clips. Yep, it was really bad! The one that springs to mind is Patrick Stewart in Castlevania Lords of Shadow. I seem to remember the narration between the levels going on forever too!
Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.
Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
Played some Tekken Tag Tournament and it’s alright, not quite on the level of Tekken 3 but there’s some characters that I missed from 2. I really really dislike that in order to get the arcade ending of the character you want, you have to deliver the final blow on the boss with that exact character. So if you’re close to dying and tag out, you’ll get the ending of the person you tagged in. It’s really annoying but I’ll get there eventually.
Also, the soundtrack is brilliant, it’s totally outdated and stupid sounding but I love it.
Earlier today, since I'm currently between games and unable to start anything new, I returned to a half-complete playthrough of Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend on PSP and decided to wrap it up.
This particular port is a frustratingly funny reminder of a time when publishers (because, let's be honest, it would've always been their decision) pushed to release their game on every available console. Sometimes that meant making expensive, bespoke versions (like the GBA and DS got) but, more often than not, things were just thrown at the PSP whether they'd fit or not, playability be damned.
The remarkable fact is that, on Sony's first handheld, you can experience the entirety of Legend, the full-fat version, from beginning to end. Every level, every puzzle, every boss fight, every bike chase... it's all there. Naturally, the framerate drops to single digits in any environment bigger than a stationary cupboard, and on two occasions this PowerPoint slideshow ended up killing Lara because it got so slow, but hey, it's the full game! On a portable device! It doesn't matter that the cutscenes are framed so badly, they chop people's eyes off half the time. I can even forgive the yawning chasms between each sentence of incidental dialogue as the UMD furiously spins in the background, wishing you'd stop dodge-rolling away from that snow leopard because it's busy trying to load Zip's next witty retort (and if the framerate was bad before, then this particular perfect storm of processing pressures can sink it into fractions of a single digit).
How anybody thought that this was an acceptable way to play Legend is beyond me. Mind you, they must've realised their shortcomings at one point during development. Because you have to stop moving and hold Square to turn the camera (thank you, single analogue stick) the timings on certain puzzles and boss fights have been lengthened, and the parameters for successful jumping have been widened. Lara is frequently drawn to ledges and ropes as though she has magnetic hands, something that can't be said for the PS2 / PS3 version's hair-width precision. So at least somebody realised that this was a clunky, nigh-unplayable game and decided to give masochistic players a fighting chance.
I immediately remembered why I'd abandoned this playthrough (two years ago!) but, somehow, I stuck with it today, and I'm very near the end now.
That's not the worst of it, though. Back in the day, my blind fanboyism made me purchase a special edition double-pack which not only included Legend, but the PSP port of Anniversary as well. Morbid curiosity will no doubt have me checking out how they managed to get a bigger, more complex sequel running on handheld... but let's be honest, they probably didn't.
Because, if Legend is anything to go by, they'll have simply released it regardless.
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@RogerRoger I had to laugh out loud as I read your Tomb Raider: Legend post there. If nothing else, your struggles have entertained the rest of us who got to read about it. Looking forward to hearing about Anniversary. 😄
I’ve long since gotten rid of my PSP. When I bought my Vita, I think I surmised that since it was backwards compatible, so to speak, that I didn’t need to keep it. Same with my old PS1. Nevertheless, I still have my PS2 and PS3. I’ve vacillated about whether to keep my PS4 whenever I take the plunge into next gen. The BC of the PS5 makes the old machine obsolete, but as I’ve gotten older, I think I see the value in keeping these things for the long haul for nostalgia and the inevitable quirky and unique experiences like playing TR Legend on a PSP. 😄
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@KratosMD The poor PSP often struck me as the awkward middle child when it came to third-party, multi-platform releases back in the day. Sometimes it'd get a port of the downgraded DS version of a game, which wasted the system's potential, whereas other times (like here, and in those examples you mention) it'd be forced to run home console games beyond its abilities. Nobody quite knew what to do with it.
Legend surprised me earlier this morning because, once I'd cleared the story, I had a poke around the menu and found a set of gameplay modes exclusive to the PSP in addition to the full game and Croft Manor. There was a procedurally-generated challenge mode and a multiplayer head-to-head treasure race, amongst other things. I tried one of the former and it ran much, much better than the campaign had managed; it was almost enjoyable to play. It reminded me of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed on PSP which, not merely content with presenting a workable port of the PS2 version, added in extra features and content not found anywhere else.
In terms of content, therefore, Legend on PSP would appear to be a definitive edition (even if, in terms of performance, it's scraping the bottom of the barrel). I mean, what the heck...?!
The Tomb Raider HD Trilogy on PS3 is superb; I'm sure you're gonna have a blast. A word of caution about the running order, though; it's actually Legend first, which rebooted the franchise after Angel of Darkness had tanked a few years previous. Then it's Anniversary, followed by Underworld. It may not make much sense having a remake of Lara's first adventure in the middle of a trilogy but, trust me, Crystal Dynamics made it work really well, before Underworld draws everything together.
You're right to be cautious of Anniversary being a long-ish game, but Legend is a much shorter prospect, being a well-paced globetrotting adventure more akin to a James Bond movie than its archaeological contemporaries. First time through, you'll see its end credits after seven, maybe eight hours; whenever I replay it for laughs nowadays, I can finish it in about four.
***
@Th3solution Thanks, buddy; always happy to provide a good laugh!
Yeah, I kinda regretted giving my PSone away when I realised that the emulation software used in PS2 Slims and PS3s broke a select few PSone games whenever you tried to play them (and naturally, those select few were childhood favourites that I kept lovingly on my shelf, desperate to play again someday). I think, as long as I've got the space, I'll try and keep my consoles in working order... problem is, PS5 looks like an absolute beast, so space might suddenly be at a premium!
But wait, you read the above and regret not being able to play Legend on PSP...?!
I keep meaning to boot up my PS Vita and trawl its PS Store for digital versions of my PSP back-catalogue; partly out of curiosity to see whether they run any better, but also to bulletproof my collection in case either handheld decides to die on me.
I have physical copies of Daxter, Jak & Daxter: The Lost Frontier and the two Syphon Filter games. It's been a while since I played them, but I think I can recommend them all; I have particularly strong memories of The Lost Frontier. They're all long-overdue a replay, though. Haven't played any of the others you mention, alas, but I do remember that the GTA "Stories" games were ported to PS2, where they ran a little better and looked a little nicer (same can be said for the first Syphon Filter game, actually... and The Lost Frontier... well, there's yet another bizarre chapter in the history of the PSP, taking its exclusive games and porting them to an older console).
Oh, and speaking of HD trilogies, your review of Sly 2 in the other topic makes me wanna return to PS3 and grab those games, as I picked the Jak & Daxter remasters instead. Sounds like you had an excellent time with the sequel, and I hope the third game is equally as good, if not better!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@KratosMDChinatown Wars is excellent; I played the original DS version and had a blast. The PSP version benefits from higher screen real estate, cleaner visuals and music and some additional content, but loses the touchscreen features. Liberty City Stories is good but quite difficult. I felt like I was wrestling with the controls the whole time. At the time it was pretty incredible to play an almost full featured GTA game on a handheld, but that is less impressive these days. Daxter is a great little platformer and eschews the edginess and darker visual cues of Jak 2 & 3. I thoroughly recommend it. Not yet properly played The Lost Frontier (one day!) but really enjoyed the demo I played when I got my PSP.
I would recommend skipping LittleBigPlanet entirely. It’s very stripped back compared to the PS3 (and later, Vita) games and the single player is short and not particularly memorable. What I do remember is struggling with the creator mode and giving up because it was such a nightmare to do anything. So for the single player story it’s not particularly worth it.
@KratosMD Oh, I've played all of the Jak & Daxter games before; first time via the HD Trilogy, and now I'm halfway through their re-releases as PS2 Classics on PS4. You and I agree about Jak II, though, so I stalled after completing it the second time. I've got Jak 3 (which is better, absolutely) and Jak X: Combat Racing still to go, but it's taking me a while to get around to them. Your recommendation to play Sly is therefore perfectly timed, thank you!
The Lost Frontier has battles between giant airborne pirate ships. Enough said!
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Bringing in @Th3solution as well here, because I have shocking news. I booted up Tomb Raider: Anniversary on my PSP earlier... and it's one of the best-running PSP games I've ever played.
I couldn't believe it. Somehow, its larger and more detailed environments don't tank the framerate, which still isn't perfect but is at least another, more important P word: playable. At times, in mid-sized areas, it almost feels 60fps (which I didn't even think the little handheld was capable of, but here we are). Lara's controls have also been totally overhauled, which isn't kind to my muscle memory but is kind to the PSP's lack of buttons. It feels much more retro and arcade-y to play, with shooting mapped to Square whilst L and R pan the camera. This means they haven't had to make the jumping and grabbing as forgiving as before and, as a result, I screwed up a good number of early leaps.
Despite this additional challenge, I kept restarting and trying again. After a while, I wasn't continuing out of bloody-minded fanboy perseverance; I was continuing because it was fun.
Once again, it's the whole game, but some very minor corners have been cut. One early boss fight which usually takes place at the back of a large, open valley was now hidden behind a wall and a new loading screen, but it wasn't intrusive and felt necessary to maintain performance. I much prefer this approach over trying to preserve something that near-as-darn-it bricks the console.
The difference between Legend and Anniversary on PSP is like night and day. I was genuinely aghast, so I looked up some background information and it all started to make sense. Crystal Dynamics developed Legend alone and then, afterwards, dragged in Buzz Monkey Software to port it to the PSP but, for Anniversary, the entire game was developed by both studios, working together, for all platforms simultaneously. Always nice to see somebody learning from their mistakes, I suppose!
I was only gonna muck about in the first level and laugh at its terrible framerate, but now... now I think I'm gonna play this all the way through 'til the end.
And that's saying something, because I don't even like Anniversary that much.
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@RogerRoger Great news about Anniversary. You make me want to replay those older TR games because it’s been a long time for me. I wonder if they play on the Vita.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@RogerRoger You’ve actually reminded me that I’ve barely gone near the Tomb Raider games. I’ve only played parts of 1, Angel of Darkness for my sins, the reboot and the first hour of Rise. I really should go back and play that trilogy, I’ve heard they’ve held up the best before Uncharted put a spanner in the works.
@Th3solution Confirming that yes, both the digital PSP versions of Legend and Anniversary are compatible with the PS Vita. From the footage I found on YouTube, looks like they run okay!
@nessisonett It's remarkable how much Lara's HD Trilogy laid groundwork for Nathan Drake. It took him until the PS4 to get a grappling hook, whereas she had one since 2006 (and it's multi-purpose). In fact, swap out the cover-based shooting for lock-on arcade blasting and they're more identical than many care to remember. Both have hardcore fans who can get a little petty about things; for my money, they're both great, but Lara has the pedigree and flexibility to give her a (very) slight edge.
@KratosMD Hey, it's not like you went into a console-specific topic and asked me which version of a particular game I was playing, so you had nothing to be embarrassed about back there!
Sounds like you've hit a bit of a wall with Mario & Luigi, which I'm sorry to hear. I'd always heard good things about the series, but then I've also heard similar versions of those issues you mention repeated about many an RPG, so maybe it's just a genre thing? At least you're nearing the end!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
Been playing more of Hades and I think it’s legitimately up there with the best games I’ve ever played, and I’ve played a whole lot of games. For a rogue-like to have that much plot, nuance and subtext, it’s truly a testament to how great Supergiant are at making games. I still haven’t ‘completed’ it yet because it’s bloody difficult but I can feel myself getting closer each time and it’s just such a joy to play, with all the different weapons, skills and randomised rooms. I could easily sink 1000 hours into it, same as I’ve done with Binding of Isaac, although for sheer enjoyment and investment in the characters rather than trying to unlock every new little thing. Plus you can pet the three-headed dog. Roll on 1.0
@JohnnyShoulder It looks like they’ll reveal a console release in the next few months once it hits 1.0, but for now there’s not many details. It’s hard to tell if they’ll bother doing a PS4 release or just jump straight to PS5.
This week I’ve spent a large amount of time playing Batman: Arkham Origins on the PS3. I’ve largely been enjoying it; the atmosphere is great and I like playing as Batman - a lot. It’s open worlidness also has that comfort food thing going for it, which is nice, and I like that the world isn’t too big and is interspersed withe generally well designed linear story missions. It’s exactly the kind of game I need right now.
There are some design niggles and having snipers in a beat-me-up is extremely frustrating, but by far my biggest complaint is the performance. The frame rate is appalling and too often brawls descend into a jittery slideshow, making combat far more difficult than it should be. It’s worse when it happens simply gliding or grappling round the city. What is baffling is it actually ran reasonably well to begin with, but now I’m well into the second half of the game the performance has deteriorated. I know that Unreal Engine 3 did not perform very well on the PS3, what with it’s grotesque hardware design and all, but this is on another level.
Tried to go back to Yume Nikki since I’ve played so many horror games since the first time I attempted it. Nope nope nope nope. Still as unsettling as ever, nothing’s got under my skin as much as that game, despite it being version 0.10 and an RPG Maker game from about 2004. It’s like LSD on PS1 but even more horrific.
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