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The rarely updated blog of Joel Dixon
Viewing blogs posted in February, 2008
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Tony Hawk's American Wasteland
# Posted by Joel Dixon at 24/02/2008 13:34:46Updated by Joel Dixon at 04/03/2008 17:03:18
Back in high school a couple of friends and I hired a game that was getting a little bit of hype amongst the kiddies - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for my PlayStation. Still to this day, I can remember how I felt when I started skating the first level - the Warehouse. The game did look awesome - but the real joy came from replicating the feeling of turning up at an unfamiliar place, and seeing what you could skate on. This is something my friends and I did frequently during our early high school days (on rollerblades), but in Tony Hawk - I could actually complete better tricks than "the jump".
The first level in the original Tony Hawk game
As I rolled through the levels like The School (another very familiar setting) and The Mall (I admit I did have a fantasy of blading through an empty Eastland) collecting the coveted tapes and uncovering amusing gap names I knew this was a special game. I am now a proud owner of every game in the Tony Hawk's series and while I definitely feel the quality of the series had peaked by the third installment - I still buy and enjoy each of the games, just to try out the new levels, if nothing else.
The last Tony Hawk game I bought for my PlayStation 2 was Tony Hawk's Underground 2 quite a few years ago - and it was fortunate that the next in the series, American Wasteland, was available for the Xbox 360 at the bargain price of $15.
Why pink?
As this is the fifth Tony Hawk game, game play changes were hardly genre re-defining. The big change was what they took out of this game - loading screens. There was, however, loading tunnels - 30 seconds of sparsely populated tunnels connecting each different section together. Even though the change was essentially turning the loading screen into a user-controlled animation, I must admit that it did help the flow of the game.
Continuing the trend that was introduced in Tony Hawk's Underground, American Wasteland's main content was uncovered in a "story mode" that tried to add a narrative to the game. I've never been a fan of "story mode" as it generally results in a lot of busy-task goals, and crap loads of unnecessary skating from point A to B. In my opinion the story mode succeeds only in making the game more disjointed.
The chick you try to doink in the story mode (the one without pigtails)
Some of the new story mode levels are pretty cool (such as a finished Skate Park) as are some of the NPCs that are introduced - but on the whole I was unimpressed. A very small feature of story mode is the ability to get off your board and hop onto a bike to ride around. This was one of the better inclusions of the game in my opinion, especially since the BMX controls were much better than the controls of Activision's Mat Hoffman series of games. It feels great to pull off a flare or tailwhip with this style of controls!
No tuffs on this bike, unfortunately
Once I finally slogged my way though the story mode I gave classic mode a shot - and was happy again. The sense of nostalgia overwhelmed me as soon as I begun the first classic level. You see - all of the classic levels are remakes of levels from earlier games in the series (like my beloved Mall level from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater). I'm sure some people view this as a cop out - but I was happy as it's been so long since I've played these levels, and they take on new life with the inclusion of moves such as the manual and revert.
I guess the other new feature that would have wowed people when this game was released was the ability to play against others online with Xbox Live. I played a few games online over Live - and it was definitely fun - but there really isn't many other games playing this game now days. Still - the online experience was quite well implemented - considering the time this game was released.
Achievements in this game weren't too bad, but pretty basic. Once completing story mode and classic mode most of the achievements were dolled out, leaving only 10 points to skate each level over Live (with or without another person) and 100 points to "complete" the game (basically get all of the gaps). Once again, considering the release date of this title, the achievements weren't too poorly implemented.
Overall - American Wasteland is pretty much as you would expect for yet another game in the Tony Hawk series. A fun game, some new levels and the ability to play over Live (while the game is still popular).
2.5 out of 5
# Posted in the Gaming section and tagged as: Xbox 360
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Friday, February 22, 2008
The Sound of Windows
# Posted by Joel Dixon at 22/02/2008 23:54:31Found this gem on a technical blog I subscribe to:
The Sound of Windows
A musical treat made only from the system sounds found in Windows 98 and XP. Sure, it isn't very long (though there is an extended version if you follow the link to YouTube) - but I thought it sounded neat enough to share.
# Posted in the General section and tagged as: Music
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Sunday, February 03, 2008
My Video Gaming History - Part II: The Sega Master System
# Posted by Joel Dixon at 03/02/2008 22:47:30Updated by Joel Dixon at 06/02/2008 14:24:36
In my early primary school days a geeky-looking kid named Nick joined our grade 2 class a few weeks into the year. My best pal Jason and I had planned to torment this "new guy" relentlessly, until we found out he was an Essendon Bombers fan. We became fast friends and as I lived a 10 minute bike ride away from Nick's house, we spent most of our after-school time together. We used to take treks "down the creek" to investigate sewer pipes, ride our bikes (I had a sweet set of Skyway Tuffs wheels) to the Ringwood bowl (no longer there) accomplishing amazing tricks (like a mono) and we spent a lot of time on Nick's Sega Master System hurting our thumbs.
WE5T 0NE
We had the vastly superior Sega Master System II
The game that utilised most of our time was Alex Kidd in Miracle World, which was bundled with the Sega Master System II (in this case bundled meant it was actually part of the system - when you turned on the game without a cartridge in it, Alex Kidd would start). Miracle World was a very simple platformer, and the first game starring the Master System's mascot Alex Kidd (in some games he was a boy with large ears, in other he looked more like a monkey than human). Being the time before Game FAQs, Nick and I spent countless hours trying to discover the secrets of Miracle World, and we eventually learnt all there was to know about the game. And, of course, all this time was spent bugging my parents for our own Master System.
Alex is eating a rice ball here - but in my version it was replaced with a hamburger
We memorised all of the boss men's jenken strategies
I really enjoyed the helicopter stages
Eventually our parents relented, and I think it was Easter of 1988 that we received our own holy grail of gaming. I didn't quite react like this guy - but I was very happy to say the least. We started with a copy of Enduro Racer (a very basic motorcycle game) and eventually built up our gaming library over time. As the games were all on cartridges, piracy was not possible, so we relied a lot on our local One-Stop Video store for new and exciting games. I can remember standing in One-Stop for a very long time, furiously studying the back of the game boxes to make my important choice. As we spent most of our money on hiring the games instead of buying them - we had a good variety of titles rolling through the Dixon household. I had hunted down some of the classics for a previous pixel-related blog entry:
(from top-left) The Ninja, Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap, Micky Mouse: Castle of Illusion, Desert Storm, Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Enduro Racer, Sonic the Hedgehog, California Games, Parlour Games
There were a few games which hold a special place in my memory. The main would would have to be Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap. Part of the Wonder Boy series, this game was a side scroller with a bit of a difference. At the very start of the game, after defeating the Meka Dragon, you are transformed into Lizard-Man a very weak character (doesn't even hold a sword). During your quest to return to a Hu-Man, you play as different -Man's (Mouse-Man, Lion-Man etc) each with unique abilities (ie. Lizard-Man is impervious to lava). You can also purchase various swords, shields and armour which can provide unique abilities (the Magical Saber can make invisible blocks appear etc). This game was on high hire rotation during primary school - and early in high school I found that Eryc-Ads was also a huge fan of this game (and better at it than I was). This sparked another period of squaring off against Mr. Meka Dragon & co. - and every couple of years I fire this one back up on the emulator.
The Meka Dragon is my biartch
The first town isn't as fun when you're a damn lizard
Mouse-Man is probably my favourite
Another family favourite was Parlour Games, providing electronic pool, darts and bingo faithfully represented in 8 bit graphics and a killer soundtrack. This title has the particular distinction of being the first game I ever bought with my own money (it was worth it!). Pool was the most popular sport in our family, but darts had a run every so often. This was another game that I rediscovered with Eryc-Ads in my high school days - as a group of us would take turns playing pool or sit around watching the one person play bingo.
The in operation
Open In, Open Out?
I still don't fully understand how this game worked
The Master System was a great introduction to console gaming, and it helped prepare me for the gaming juggernaut of the Mega Drive that was soon to follow!
# Posted in the Gaming section and tagged as: Master System
This is the 2nd in the My Video Gaming History series
Part I - My Video Gaming History - Part I: The Commodore 64Part II - My Video Gaming History - Part II: The Sega Master System
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