Category Archives: PlayStation

Games, PlayStation

PSP PS1 Emulation

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Now isn’t this a sweet sight?

Final Fantasy VII on PSP

The current official version of the PS1 emulator on the PSP is quite limited – it only plays the handful of games available from the PS3 store, it requires a PS3, and it requires you to buy games that you already own at $6 a time – but, wouldn’t you know it, the hackers are well ahead of the curve and the emulator has been hacked to play games that you rip yourself.

If you need a reason to use the PSP, are there any better ones than Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil 2, Symphony of the Night, etc? With any luck you’ll still be on 1.5, 2.71 SE, or another firmware that supports running homebrew, in which case I suggest you obtain 3.02 OE-B and whack it on there poste haste.

Best of 2006, Games, GOTY, PlayStation

Best of 2006 #5: Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence

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Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence

In case I haven’t made this clear, I hated Snake Eater. But what a difference a little camera control can make.

After Sons of Liberty the MGS series lost a lot of goodwill, and so tried something new with MGS3. Now you play only as Snake (not Solid), and you’re not in the near future of infinite battery lives and soliton radar, but in a Soviet jungle at the height of the Cold War. You’re really on your own, with even the need to sustain yourself completely in your hands. It was just too bad that a bit too much digging in menus and a truly terrible camera let it down.

Luckily someone at Konami had played Splinter Cell. That second stick was put to good use and let you move the camera in full 3D (in a 3D game? Whatever next!?), and in doing so completely transformed it. What was game-ruining flaw suddenly become totally transparent to use and allowed the parts that the game does so well to shine through.

What it does well, it does very well. A slick and exciting stealth adventure with a wry sense of humour carries a superb story – all told through cinematics that can stand up with the best blockbusters – right through to an epic and emotional ending (around twenty minutes long) that gives the perfect finale to what had been a top class game. Bring on MGS4.

Best of 2006, Games, GOTY, PlayStation

Best of 2006 #6: Dragon Quest VIII

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Dragon Quest VIII

The next one may be coming to the DS, but Dragon Quest VIII certainly managed to do the PS2 proud. 2006 has been a good sendoff for Sony’s retiree with some of the most impressive games in the console’s history, and this is certainly up there.

Rather than reinventing the wheel as the Final Fantasy series is wont to do, DQVIII takes quite the opposite path. This is about as traditionalist as can be. The admittedly stunning graphics are essentially a flashy wrapper for gameplay that has been all but unchanged since the beginning. No ATB, minimal battle animations, random battles coming out of its arse, and a blank expression when quizzed about anything as elaborate as a job system.

The basics are as solid as can be after so much refinement, but it’s the setting and visuals that provide the biggest step forward. Let nobody tell you that cel-shading is dead, because this game is one of the best showpieces yet. The game takes place in a beautiful fantasy world painted mainly in primary colours, as far from the dystopian future/steampunk settings of many contemporaries as can be. It’s one of those games that can visually transcend the HD barrier that newer consoles are hastily building over the past.

Too bad that such a top game couldn’t forge a market outside Japan like the Final Fantasy series could. Maybe that’s what they’re hoping for with IX.

Games, Impressions, PlayStation

A Very Final Fantasy Christmas

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I trust everyone else had an excellent Christmas.

Shockingly, I got several new games. What was surprising is that all of them, with the exception of the free copy of Uno (oddly captivating) that came with the Xbox Live Vision cam that I also got, were Final Fantasy games: Final Fantasy XII on the PS2, Final Fantasy III on DS, and Final Fantasy V Advance for GBA.

Final Fantasies

XII is an unusual one when coming from the fairly orthodox FFX. Final Fantasy XI has become the red-headed stepchild of the series and I bet whoever decided to make it a part of the normal chronology rather than a Crystal Chronicles style sidestory is living in a cardboard box somewhere now, but it’s definitely had an influence on this. In fact it is an MMORPG…just without the MO. It has an entirely different MO, in fact.

I’m shocked by how much of a departure from FFI-through-X this game is. Random battles are gone (hooray!), enemies can be seen on the map and avoided entirely like an MMORPG, and combat plays a lot like Knights of the Old Republic. And if the whole thing didn’t play enough like what is traditionally a PC genre, you can get your hands dirty with what is effectively a scripting language to control the rest of your team. It sounds weird, but that’s one system that I really like, and one that proves essential to real-time control in a game like this.

This is another one of those games that shows how much life the PS2 could have had in it. The opening town is vast, and your view isn’t constrained by prerendered backdrops and fixed cameras because the right stick lets you look anywhere. The FMV is often spectacular, voice acting is generally very strong (Migelo is a particular high point), and even the facial expressions in real-time cinematics are better than many prerendered scenes that I’ve experienced. I can’t wait to really crack on with it. Continue reading A Very Final Fantasy Christmas →

Best of 2006, Games, GOTY, PC games, PlayStation, Xbox

Best of 2006 #7: Hitman Blood Money

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Hitman: Blood Money

Perhaps one of my more controversial choices, this was the first Hitman game that I ever played at any length and turned into a surprising favourite. In fact, I think it’s the only game this year that I’ve been moved to play through more than once.

It’s not spectacular looking or anything like that (‘clean’ is really the only superlative that applies to the 360 version, impressive Mardi Gras level aside); it just ticks the boxes that made me enjoy the Splinter Cell games so much. As you’re funnelled along through the story, it gives just enough room for improvisation to make multiple playthroughs feel different. I’m replaying the second level in my head now, and I can think of at least three different ways to approach the first target alone, and the elusive Silent Assassin ranking provides an effective carrot to the same perfectionist in me that Sam Fisher kept tempting.

I’ve heard from fans of the series that Blood Money is one of the best, so I hope that Eidos and IO can give 47 a proper next-gen runout. I’d love to see what they can do with these inventive scenarios when they properly tap into that extra power.

(Merry Christmas)

Best of 2006, Games, GOTY, Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox

Best of 2006

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It’s that time again. There are only ten days of 2006 remaining and, as I did last year, I’ll be running through my top ten of 2006. These are my favourites of the year, with the rule being that they had to be released in one of the three major territories and played by me at some point between 1st January and 31st December 2006, Anno Domini.

This time last year I’d spoken about the unusually high number of hardware launches making it a particularly strong year, but now that 2006 has brought with it the DS Lite, PlayStation 3, and Wii – as well as the 360 really hitting its stride – last year looks almost anaemic by comparison.

There was quite a scuffle for top spot and some debate over whether Street Fighter Alpha Anthology should get a spot (it didn’t: as great as it was, excellent value for money doesn’t hide the fact that the newest of those games is pushing ten), but the best of this year almost picked itself for me, with some great next-gen titles and the old guard looking for a good send off as well. I welcome all feedback as it comes.