Some exciting news: the semi-regular discussion series, Discussion: [indie game] (spoilers!) has moved to a podcast format!

This does mean that future instalments won’t be appearing on FFG in written form. Thanks to everyone who read them, and to Stoo for extending the remit of the site to allow them to be hosted here. 

While Jo and I don’t plan to revisit any games covered in our previous discussions, we’ve started off in fairly familiar territory by choosing The Blackwell Legacy for our first episode: a game we’ve both played, but not discussed, previously. 

In addition to that discussion, we’ve also put up a couple of bonus episodes, in which we introduce the format and chat about various things from our gaming pasts.

Instead of the slightly ad-hoc nature of the written pieces, new podcasts will be released weekly, on a Friday, but with breaks in between each run of episodes.

Any and all support is welcome, whether it’s by listening to the podcast itself, which is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Music (as well as a few other places), or by following us on Instagram.

(For anyone baffled by or indifferent to this news: this is my one and only plug for the podcast on FFG, and the next time you’ll hear from me, it’ll be back to the typical diet of oldies reviews, delivered at the usual rate).

Thank you!

Today in “news you’ve already read somewhere else”. The Warcraft series has reached its 30th Anniversary and as part of the celebrations, Blizzard have released remastered versions of the first two games.

You get the option of either original graphics, or ” lovingly updated hand-painted artwork”. You might recall the first game was pixelly VGA, the second moved to higher-res SVGA and established the series bold and colourful look. Now they share a similar style, more or less what I’d expect if you took the second game and re-drew it today.

So they look great… although it’s disappointing that the animation isn’t any smoother. This seems to be an occasional issue with remastering old-school 2D games. Just in my opinion, if you create hidef graphics but only have three frames for an “attack” motion, it gives the impression of a cheap mobile game.

Anyway we also get “UI and UX” improvements which I expect will, again, have more of an impact on the first game. For example, you can now move a unit by selecting and clicking instead of select, hotkey (or menu option), then clicking. Also you can select a larger number of units simultaneously. These details matter when you’re in a rush; I always found the clunky interface in WC1 to be a little offputting.

Oh and also, the remastered WC2 will still connect to Battle.net for multiplayer, as it has since 1999. Which is kind of astonishing.

I’d say both games are worth owning, being fine examples of early realtime strategy. Build up forces, fend off enemy attacks, try and co-ordinate your own successful strike on the enemy. Chaotic disaster when you get it wrong, immensely satisfying when you’re victorious. They’re also of interest to World of Warcraft fans, since they show events about 20 years before the point where WoW begins. If you’ve ever walked around the ruins of Alterac, here’s your chance to go and see the battle where it was destroyed.

The first game is going on Battle.net for £8.99 while Warcraft 2 will set you back £12.59. Alternatively you can get them both in the Battle Chest bundle with the remastered version of Warcraft 3 from a years back.

The changes haven’t (yet) reached GoG, who are still selling the versions of WC1 and 2 released about four years ago. (they don’t have WC3). These are more or less in their original state, with a few small tweaks to WC2 like widescreen support. They’re also a few quid cheaper, if you really don’t care about the upgrades or want a DRM-free version. Since I already own the gog versions I’m not in a hurry here, but will probably wait and see if the Battle Chest ever goes on sale. Then maybe one day I’ll finally give WC1 a proper try.

[update]  – sadly WC1 and 2 will be leaving the gog store on December the 13th. If you’ve already bought the games there, gog will at least keep them available and updated for modern windows according to their new Gog Preservation Program.

Hi there.

Nice to be back with you again. Sorry it’s been a while.

Today’s game is Mafia, a 1930s organised crime caper from Illusion Softworks.

I recently finished Horizon Chase Turbo. Short review: it’s really good!

A number of retro-themed arcade racers have caught my attention in recent years, and it seems (albeit from a position of almost total ignorance of modern gaming trends) as if the increasing focus of mainstream racers on a serious, simulation-focused experience has opened up some space for smaller developers at the more arcadey end of the market.

It’s one thing to say that you’re attempting to recapture the spirit of 80s or 90s racers in a new game, but quite another to actually achieve it successfully. Eagerly presenting a trailer showcasing sprite-based or stripped-back polygon graphics and chiptune soundtrack is arguably the easy bit.

Horizon Chase Turbo not only ticks those two boxes – it looks and sounds great – but has plenty going on under the bonnet too. Its career mode, the World Tour, offers refreshingly gimmick-free gameplay and uncomplicated structures of progression, particularly for single-minded gamers (such as yours truly) who refuse to move onto the next races until perfection has been achieved in those already available.

Start at the back, do laps, finish first and collect all the coins: that’s how you get top billing on each track. As you do so, you’ll unlock more vehicles, which can be upgraded through a top-3 finish (or first, and only first, if you’re an obsessive – see above) in a special race in each territory. Consideration of your vehicles’ attributes – again, kept relatively simple, just like in the old days – then becomes a matter for some consideration prior to each race.

The length of the World Tour and number of races is one of the few concessions to the expectations of the modern gamer, and possibly leads to occasional autopiloting through stages without necessarily mastering them. However, dotted throughout are some truly nefarious tracks that simply will not be beaten without you getting everything – vehicle selection, the location of on-track pickups, not crashing, using nitro at exactly the right time – absolutely spot on.

These are the moments that, in my opinion, make for a great arcade racer. And while there may be a few too many filler races overall, things do build to a crescendo, difficulty-wise, and the finale is appropriately climactic. It’s a game that pretty much achieves everything it sets out to do, which is a rare thing indeed.

For those, like me, with fond memories of the original Lotus Esprit Turbo Challenge (or the Top Gear games that followed on the SNES), this is the perfect modern successor. Having been hooked on achieving World Tour perfection for quite a few months, I’m not sure if I’ll dive into the various other modes available straight away, or at all, but even if I don’t, Horizon Chase Turbo has provided more than its fair share of thrilling moments already.

Hi there.

Depending on how generous you want to be, we’re either a week or a month late with this one.

If you’re English, the post-Euros hangover will be over by now, at least.

Personally, I made my headache slightly worse by returning to Actua Soccer and playing its first sequel: Euro 96.

And, don’t forget, if you like your coverage of mainly terrible old football games in some kind of list-based format, you can find this here.

Hello!

Right… how to make this update vaguely topical…?

As you know, we’ve just had an election here in the UK.

[Leans into microphone] I tell you what, I’ve not seen such a unanimously negative verdict since Daikatana was released!

Will that do? Does that, er, you know, work? Hello?

Hi there.

Today’s game is our first Tomb Raider review.

(Not a review of the first Tomb Raider, though: that would be far too logical).

Here’s a look at Tomb Raider: Legend, from Crystal Dynamics.

Hi all.

Just a quick note to say we’re aware of some strange issues with our menu pages on the desktop site.

The reviews themselves appear to be unaffected, but something seems to have gone wrong with the genre categories. And it all seems to be ok on mobile at the moment.

Anyway, we’re looking into it! (Or Stoo is, at least).

Update – The menus should now be working as normal. – Stoo

Some good news: Alpha Protocol is back, after a few years in digital purgatory, thanks to GOG.

While I’ve spent a good chunk of the last few years catching up with Bioware RPGs of a certain vintage, Alpha Protocol was probably the game that kicked that whole process off. (It’s somehow very on-brand for me to be inspired to play 00s Bioware games by something that was neither developed by them or even released in the 00s).

Although in some ways, the parameters of your quest are quite narrow by RPG standards – you act alone, and have to be a male spy called Mike who behaves like a knob regardless of your choices – it otherwise packs a surprising number of alternative story permutations into its fairly compact running time.

The dialogue system, which requires each decision to be made quite quickly, and the relative lack of heavy-handed signposting about the right or wrong thing to do in each case, both contribute to a more thrilling ride than your typical ‘choices matter’ type tale.

There are, of course, plenty of bugs and glitches and signs of general clumsiness, too, but it’s an interesting game and one well worth checking out now it’s available again. (My own last playthrough was the beginning of the pandemic, at which point I wrote a less than coherent review. The two facts are possibly linked).

Having seen AP retail for a couple of quid for many years, as part of the general and possibly unrealistic expectation that the price of older games should start to plummet after a while and then remain at rock bottom for an indefinite period, it is a bit of an adjustment to see it come back at 16 quid, although this no doubt reflects the effort involved in exhuming the proper rights and clearances, all of which is part of the generally nightmarish scenario that dictates that digital games of a particular period are suddenly made unavailable in the first place.

(I should also say that, despite having no such problems myself, some have reported issues in getting the game working on modern PCs, which this new version claims to resolve).

And, while Mike Thorton might be back in action, there’s still no sign of a return for Solid Snake (and Raiden) as Metal Gear Solid 2 remains unavailable on GOG, despite vague promises that its withdrawal was only temporary.

Perhaps Konami considers these promises now fulfilled via the remastered MGS collection on Steam, although if they were really committing to that being the ‘definitive’ version of the games, the fact that you can still buy the first game on GOG with no issues seems a bit odd.

Anyway, enough grumbling: let us relish in the mildly positive news that a whole new generation of gamers can enjoy the charmless ramblings of Agent Mike!

Hi there.

If reviews have been in short supply recently, even by our standards, then underestimating the size of the task before me when I took on today’s game is probably one of the reasons why.

Still, we got there in the end, and a pretty good time was had along the way. Here’s our review of Dragon Age: Origins.