Sunday, October 4, 2015

The 10 Games I'd Like to Play (Again)

One of my goals for the blog is to fit things in that just won't go on the website, including neat scans, ramblings, or other benign things. I like video games, but my current set-up and living situation have rendered several games unplayable or at least not to the extent I'd like to. Here's 10 of those titles that I wish I could play (again). I've picked out some thumbnails that will work should I (and I hope I will) write about them at some point.


1. WingNuts Temporal Navigator (2001)
Last Played: 2008

WingNuts is best associated with 2005 for me (even though it had been out for several years at that point) and had one of the best soundtracks for games ever. Sadly, an update for Mac OS X broke the game in that it only played the first level soundtrack for the rest of the game, and by that time, it was abandonware. Compounding this is a bad 640 x 480 resolution, so if I try to run it on my MacBook (which still runs Snow Leopard) with the external monitor attached, it refuses to run it in stretched (which the old iMac G5 did, interestingly), leaving it to run in its tiny native resolution. I hope the Windows version wasn't broken the same way the Mac one was, otherwise I'd better hope for a really good Mac OS 9 emulator (yes, it is THAT OLD).


2. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (2000)
Last Played: It's been years now

The only pre-Skyward Sword Zelda title I yet to have had a real go with, I'd like to try to run it in an emulator only so I could experiment with different graphical filters and to use my own controllers (as well as a save-and-defrost, as Majora's Mask is notoriously stingy with save points). My current computer's set-up won't run that sort of thing correctly though. I'm looking forward to the storyline and diverse characters (such as the hand in the toilet, pictured).


3. Five Nights at Freddy's (2014)
Last Played: Never

This one came out last year of this writing and quickly gained a following. Unfortunately, this is one of those followings where the "fanbase is cancer", so I'd like to just give it a run and avoid really anything else. The inspiration from the creepy old style Chuck E. Cheese animatronics (and similar venues) is brilliant, as well as actually making the derided Night Trap-style gameplay viable again.


4. Minecraft (2009-2011)
Last Played: Probably 2011?

I'm afraid I may have missed the boat on this one, but Minecraft is one game that I missed out because by the time I had the opportunity to really buy it, my computer was not suited to play it and I was working. Now, I just hope the various updates (and it being owned by Microsoft) hasn't ruined it (if that hasn't already happened).


5. Bugdom (1999)
Last Played: It's been years now

I tend to be a bit nostalgic with games I haven't played in a while but Bugdom, one of the few games not runnable in a Mac emulator, is one that I'd like to play sometime. Unfortunately, I'll have to settle for the PC version, which is likely to have different controls than what I'm used to, but I guess it'll have to do, as it long as it looks, plays, and sounds like it should.


6. Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People (2008)
Last Played: 2009-ish (I believe)

I downloaded and played Episode 1 for this on the Wii, and recently bought the discounted full version on Steam, because on the Wii, things are never discounted, the mouse control scheme will be better, and it's higher resolution.


7. Portal 2 (2011)
Last Played: Probably early 2014 at the latest

The wildly successful Portal did get a sequel and I nabbed mine as soon as prices dropped to an acceptable level. Unfortunately, I never got to things like Wheatley or GlaDOS again because I was stuck, and then my system crashed. It's saved, but in semi-permanent stasis...just like Chell!


8. Riven: The Sequel to Myst (1997)
Last Played: It's been years now

For what it's worth, I did buy this on Steam, though I found the resolution was blown up (making it larger on monitors, though unfortunately making it visually worse), though I believe I should've been able to correct that. What may be harder, and I never did see if this was corrected or able to be corrected, was switching the L&R sound outputs.


9. SimCity 4 (2003)
Last Played: Just within the last few months

Ah, SimCity 4. The gift that keeps on giving. We've had our high times and low times together. I recommend my already long history with it instead of rambling on here.


10. Cities: Skylines (2015)
Last Played: Never

What many have declared to be the "successor" of SimCity 4, this one I'm most excited about. Not only is it the newest on the list, but it looks great (between mods) and from what I've heard plays pretty well also. There's some definite rough spots that could use improvement, but those problems smooth themselves out when you realize that it was only about 2005 when SimCity 4 really came of age in terms of mods, and that was AFTER EA had dropped it.

I realize I'm probably leaving out a lot more that's on the list, but these are the top 10...

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