Tag: dreamcast

Redwind week 10/2024

For some reason spring doesn’t seem to be in the mood to start just yet, which means way to low temperatures still for me, which then again means more blankets and cozy gaming. Well, “cozy”. But we’ll get to that.

Cineast

As mentioned in the last Redwind, I got to watch Napoleon on Apple TV+ with good friend of mine. And what to say about this, really – it’s Joaquin Phoenix meets Ridley Scott, and if you know only one of them a bit, you also know what to expect here: Beautiful scenery paired with excellent acting it is. Scott knows how to put scenes on a big screen and sure does deliver here again, as well as Phoenix sure knows how to squeeze an impressive performance out of a role. Still, as much as we had a good time watching, we still felt like that movie could’ve also worked if it’d be a bit shorter. With somewhat 2,5 hours, it just felt a tiny bit long at times, but I guess that’s somewhat to expect from a movie about a historical figure? Not that I wasn’t impressed quite often, but I’m pretty sure I would’ve been *just* as impressed with just 1,5 hours of all that history.

Games

The sightseeing enjoyed last week in San Andreas might just come to an end soon, as I’ve simply be limited by the game at this point. The usual GTA formula kicks in: “Wanna see more of the map? Do missions!” Which is pretty much what I’m *not* interested in at all, at least not in those older entries. Don’t get me wrong, the story can be fun and wild, but with it’s somewhat dated controls and all that, I honestly rather not do that. But there’s alternatives to that, gladly.

Instead, I took it a bit to “True Crime – Streets of New York”. Another one of those games on my shelf which I somehow never really played much, and in hindsight now I wonder why that is. Because the game, while having quite more than just a few technical hickups, is quite impressive considering it’s running on the PS2. A fully modelled and detailed New York, with trash flying around, super detailed interiors (especially to the… well, blank indoor variants of the older GTAs), a fun fighting system on top? That sure is some fun! Maybe it should’ve been released on the PS360, because those machines would’ve been the better choice in regards to what they tried to (technically) achieve here, but just from the looks of all of that I’m honestly quite impressed here. We’ll see how long this one will keep my interest though, so far I’ve been doing pretty much the same like I did in San Andreas last week: Taking a lot of virtual walks and just enjoying my time being.

Beside that, I felt like I needed a real fix of big online gaming nostalgia for myself – so I took it to Phantasy Star Online again. Threw in the “Episode 1&2” port for the GameCube, and even though the lack of servers these days makes it more of an “Phantasy Star Offline”, visiting Ragol again just feels so right to me. After all, this was the first online rpg on a console, and it marked my very first steps in online gaming at all, so this one sure has a special place in my heart. And really, I felt right at home in an instant. Sure, graphics and animations are not on par with what the Cube could deliver otherwise, this being port from the Dreamcast, but still, the mechanics are still surprisingly fun, even after all these years. I think I might at least go for a full run of Eps.1. Time to feed my trusty Mag some Dimates and Antidotes, I guess. Now if only I ever find someone nearby for the split screen mode. One can hope and dream.

Redwind week 9/2024

Missed a few, thanks to either migraines or a relationship that needed a bit of a quality time. Let’s get back to it, shall we?

Cineast

Movies? What are movies? Somehow the only thing I keep watching recently is still LOST, and since it’s my 7th’ish rewatch of that series – go figure. Purely “comfy food” for the soul, being halfway in the second season I still have to admit that this is pretty much my favourite show and probably will still be top tier for a long time being.

Aside that, at least one interesting thing should pop up next week then: Napoleon is out on Apple TV+, so expect maybe a word or two about that then.

Games

Going full retro with some emulators at the moment. With a mix of RetroArch and Aethersx2, my MacBook has been turned into a decent gaming machine. Still not going the full pirate mode, because why would I – there’s plenty of games on my shelfs here which I never really played. That’s a collectors thing: Buy game, throw it in, watch intro, decide “it works” – then put it on the shelf and never touch it again. So, the last few weeks I’m mostly going back to some real classics, where a few stood out especially.

After years of owning it, it was time to start some Persona 4 and holy, I think I really missed out on that one. So far I’m about 4 hours in, and I did get to actually play like… 15 minutes? Whoever tells me next time that Kojima is “just doing movies”, oh boi, you gotta sit down and play *this* one. Kojima is tame compared to that, trust me. Still, the characters are fun, the dialogues are well written, the story is engaging and that bit of a combat system I got to see is also super decent, which makes me actually enjoy this a lot. I got to admit though, I see why they turned this game into an animated series. It simply makes sense – it’s really a *lot* of story and little gameplay, at least at the beginning. We’ll see where this will go.

Besides hanging with anime school kids I also spend a decent chunk of my time with Virtua Tennis for the Dreamcast again. The simple, yet addictive gameplay is what keeps me coming back to this one, and the World Tour mode with it’s various challenges is exactly that kind of Arcade gaming which I really miss a lot these days, where most games seem to end up being less game, but more “as a service” instead. I’d rather stick it to the “insert coin to continue” formula honestly, so there goes modern gaming for me, I guess.

Last one noteworthy is GTA San Andreas, which clearly shows its age to be honest, running the original PS2 version. Still, with the color filters (these sun rises!) it’s still my favourite version of this game. Some of the gameplay mechanics seem rather basic today (switching between a thousand weapons with the shoulder buttons?), but it’s still quite impressive considering the original hardware to see such an massive open world come to life. Sure, a lot of areas are what you’d consider “empty” nowadays, but for that time? I’m really impressed they pulled that off at all, and it packs a ton of content on top of all. So, while mostly just roaming around and doing more sightseeing instead of actual missions, I’m having quite a good time here.