My most recent clearout of the ‘games cupboard’ followed the usual pattern of taking everything out, putting it on the floor and gazing at the mess I’d created while periodically puffing out my cheeks and scratching my head, before returning it all whence it came (albeit in a slightly different configuration) and telling myself that such an exercise represented a great use of an afternoon.

At some point, when there was more of a premium on space, I’d evidently decided that there should be a hierarchy of sorts, with barebones budget releases relegated to a CD wallet, and only ‘proper’ boxed games with manuals worthy of a place on the shelf.

But then I got to the point where I’d filled up quite a large wallet and started to wonder whether I wanted to be the kind of person who owned multiple leather cases full of discs and decided to just leave any new purchases in their boxes on the shelves with the others. Where there had once been a two-tier system, there was now just a random assortment of games from the 90s and 00s, stored in different places.

The only new thought that occurred to me this time was: I haven’t actually added any boxed games to the collection for a while, and I’m not sure if I will again. My current circumstances are such that I no longer pass any charity shops or branches of CeX on a regular basis, and based on recent experiences, stocks of boxed PC oldies seem to be thinning out a little bit anyway.

In an effort to salvage something useful from the whole exercise, however, I did think it might be worth building on our previous series looking at old games boxes, which started as a vain effort to track down those titles lost in previous (genuine) clearouts and ended as a weird deep dive into the UK budget market and my enthusiastic patronage of it.

We recently reviewed Gun, my copy of which was re-released as part of Activision’s Best Of range. It caught my attention because it came with a printed manual and, apart from the slightly different front cover and spine, otherwise resembles the standard DVD release.

Which also makes it a little hard to determine the exact vintage of this budget line, although I’d guess 2006-2007 or so, given that the other ‘Best Of’ title in my collection, Quake 4 (never played it!) is also from 2005, as is the only other one I can find evidence of, Call of Duty: Deluxe Edition. (MobyGames gives a German release date for this edition of Quake 4 in June 2006, which sounds about right).

If printed manuals themselves weren’t quite dying out in the mid-00s, then it certainly seemed against the general direction of travel to include them in budget re-releases. In my memory, the minimalist approach of the likes of Sold Out and Xplosiv were starting to dominate by this point, squeezing out the mid-range ‘premium economy’ £12-15 editions like this particular (apparently short-lived) range.

Anyway, the two games I own stood out in my collection amongst a predominance of disc-only releases, and in whatever system I’d instituted back in the day, they’d managed to earn a hallowed place on the shelf rather than being ruthlessly stripped down, with the boxes jettisoned and the disc/cover art filed in one of three or four random places.

I joke, of course: after my latest endeavours, I know exactly where everything is – in a totally logical place that totally makes sense (totally). Join us next time, when I definitely won’t be tearing the house apart looking for a plastic folder containing a piece of artwork for a game I bought for £3 in 2009, before giving up and nicking a picture from MobyGames.

(Although I should point out that, for once, the pics in this piece are my own scans, rather than ones purloined from the great gaming database…)

Hello everyone. As promised, here is another review!

Sometimes we consider games that originated on other systems, so long as the PC version was released at least roughly around the same time. If on the other hand the port was years later it’s not really of interest to us. So Halo might happen one day but not Final Fantasy 6, even if the latter has now been released on Steam twice.

Today’s item is a little different though – while it only arrived on PC last year, it obviously has very close ties to one of the most important games ever released for MS-DOS. So then, read on for our review of Doom 64.

Hi there.

How’s it going? All good I hope? [What’s with all the question marks? Who are you talking to? Are they going to reply? Especially if you turn off comments on these posts? – Ed.]

Today we have another review for you. It seems to be pretty much all reviews at the moment, rather than any other pieces, which I guess is good news if you think we should just get on with reviewing old games in any case.

I have it on good authority that another review will follow this one, so if you’re missing the blog posts where we waffle on about feeling bad for not doing more reviews: apologies!

Anyway, in a break from the constant coverage of racing games of various vintages from yours truly, the game in question this time is Gun from Neversoft.

Hello all.

After exploring more recent games in our last few reviews, we’re going back to the 90s for today’s piece, in which we take a look at the action racer from Remedy and Apogee, Death Rally.

Hi all!

It’s been a while, but I have a new review for you. Today we’re looking at the action-RPG from Runic Games, Torchlight.

More reviews soon. Maybe. Hopefully.

Hi there.

Hope all’s well with you.

Today’s game is Vin Diesel’s Wheelman™: A Wheelman™ Game (starring Vin Diesel).

Hello! This is Discussion: [indie game] (spoilers!), our semi-regular discussion series in which Jo and I talk about our chosen indie title with lots of plot spoilers along the way.

Today’s game is Emily Is Away <3 – the third Emily game by Kyle Seeley, released in 2021.

We’ve covered the previous two already, and so figured we may as well press on with the third one, even if – as we mention below – the experience of a thrice-rebooted tale of high school drama has the potential to be a slightly confusing and exhausting one if the games are played in quick succession.

We call it a trilogy, but it isn’t, really. Just like Emily Too, Emily <3 is an evolution of the original concept, this time ditching the instant messaging format altogether in favour of the new craze sweeping the internet in the late 00s: social media.

Otherwise, the same ingredients of teenage relationships, romantic entanglements, dramatic fallings-out and general awkwardness are present and correct here.

Like the other Emily games, we enjoyed this one, and would recommend it, although I’m not sure tackling all three in a row, like you’re having a movie night, would be all that great for your general wellbeing.

Anyway, go no further unless you’ve played the game already, have no desire to do so, or like to know how things end before you start them.

Here’s our ***FINAL SPOILER WARNING***!

Discussion: Emily Is Away <3 (spoilers!) continued »

Hello there.

Today’s game is relatively recent by our standards, but is also no longer commercially available and from a developer that is now defunct.

All of which is a shame, because it’s an absolute corker.

(I could make a joke here about always preferring Oasis or Pulp, which I sort of am doing anyway, now, but in a way that implies I think I’m better than that joke, when the evidence suggests that, clearly, I’m not. Parklife!)

Here’s a review of Blur.

In a move that will shock precisely none of our longer-term readers, this week I became one of the last people to make the upgrade to Windows 10, days before the support period for Windows 8.1 expired. (Wikipedia: ‘as of January 2023, 2.59% of traditional PCs running Windows are running Windows 8.1’).

Over the past few years, each and every time I’ve written the words ‘Tested on Win 8.1’ at the bottom of a review, I have imagined those reading wondering exactly why anyone was still using this outdated and little-loved incarnation of the Microsoft OS.

In the past, my reluctance to switch to the latest version of Windows has teetered on the edge of perverse eccentricity, although it’s never really been grounded in anything more sinister than a policy of buying mid-range PCs to play slightly old games and running them until they run no more.

For the majority of the 00s, I was stuck with Windows 98, on an old Duron (AMD chipset, discontinued in 2004) that I first got at university. When XP first came on the scene, it had a few niggles with older Win9x games, but in truth the main reason for the holdout was that, after a certain point, upgrading the OS seems fairly pointless unless you’re also going to upgrade the PC, which I couldn’t at that stage afford to do.

Since then, the cycle of remaining conservative with regard to Windows choices has continued; in 2008, when I finally bit the bullet and got a new PC, Windows Vista was the most up-to-date available incarnation, and in receipt of unflattering reviews and feedback from users. So I stuck with XP, until it stopped being supported six years later, and I had to take the plunge by putting Windows 7 on my (by now) slightly wheezing and out-of-date machine.

My current desktop came with Windows 8.1 installed, and I never made the switch to Windows 10 before now, purely because everything seemed to be working fine and I saw no pressing need to upgrade. (Plus, while they may have eventually been ironed out, I’m sure that early adopters of Win10 ran into a few compatibility problems not suffered by other users of 64-bit Windows).

Windows 8 did get bogged down in (unsuccessful) attempts to come into line with mobile operating systems like Android and Apple OS, and even though 8.1 toned it all down a little, there were still times when it felt like I was using a Windows tablet (or phone) on my desktop PC. Hence the introduction of Windows 10 (‘one louder’ than Windows 9?) and the incessant campaign to encourage users to take advantage of a free, but time-limited, upgrade programme (which still works, incidentally).

Of course, this was all so long ago that Win10 is itself due to be replaced fairly shortly, and this PC won’t be able to handle Windows 11. In fact, I fear it’s probably not long for this world: it had a near-death experience recently, after the man fitting some new blinds came downstairs, ashen-faced, to report that he had damaged my ‘games console’ after tripping over a wire and ripping off the front of the case, including a USB port. (He did offer to pay for any damage, but it still works ok, and frankly, I was just glad he hadn’t injured himself).

In the meantime, my laptop will now keep providing regular reminders that it meets the required spec for an upgrade to Windows 11, an upgrade that is as easy and convenient as pressing a button.

These reminders will, however, be ignored until the last possible moment. Old habits die hard!

Hello.

It’s that time of year where we traditionally do a half-hearted round-up of the stuff we’ve covered on FFG.

I’m going to eschew the usual small talk about what kind of a year it’s been out in the real world, other than to acknowledge that things are tough for many and to send you all our best wishes.

For once, I’m going all-in on this round-up and attempt to make it a bit more detailed. (If you call something half-hearted, it ends up being half-hearted, perhaps).

So, in the spirit of new-year positivity, let us lean in to this all-new, fully comprehensive summary of the year 2022 on FFG!*

*Like it? Hate it? Write in with your thoughts – to the usual postal address – and you’ll be entered into an exclusive prize draw.
 

Action

We started the year with some belated 20th anniversary content, a Star Wars shooter double featuring a review of Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and a discussion of Dark Forces, which we first covered in our very early days.

I didn’t mind Jedi Outcast, although its 2002 idiosyncrasies, particularly an abundance of snipers, seemed mildly more irritating than those of the older game (of which there are plenty, including the lack of a mid-level save). And I was rubbish with the lightsaber, too.

There followed another LucasArts two-header when we finally took a look at Indiana Jones and the Emperor’s Tomb, the 2003 follow-up to 1999’s Infernal Machine, which was another of FFG’s earliest reviews.

The newer game was a largely enjoyable romp, the older one a little harder to digest than I perhaps remembered. I talked about Tomb Raider, and not talking about Tomb Raider, rather a lot.

Next up was Stoo’s look at the 2005 horror shooter F.E.A.R. As I mentioned in our previous post, scary FPS games aren’t top of my list these days, and my colleague’s use of the phrase ‘permeating sense of dread’ suggests I’m unlikely to ever try this one, despite his thorough recommendation.

Then, much later in the year, it was back to Star Wars again, and the once-hyped Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, which I found slightly less engaging than I was hoping, but did at least have a couple of memorable set-pieces.
 

Adventure

We looked at two adventures this year, both from the year 2011, and with contrasting approaches.

First up was Telltale’s Jurassic Park, the main reason for my Steam Replay spider graph strongly highlighting the word ‘dinosaurs’ in its summary of my gaming year. A tale of minor characters elevated to starring roles while taking part in a story that intersected with that of the original film in a rather unlikely fashion, the adventuring was unfortunately rather static and the action heavily reliant on QTEs.

Much better was Gemini Rue, which stayed much closer to familiar point-and-click territory while evoking memories of sci-fi adventures past. Even its action sequences, often an unwelcome and poorly-implemented feature back in the 90s, worked well as a change of pace, while nodding to the cover shooter mechanic popular in contemporary big budget action games. Another decent effort from Wadjet Eye Games.
 

Racing

A daft shareware game called Road Hog! was the first racer to be unearthed and examined, early in the year. As I mentioned in the review, it’s the kind of oddity I hadn’t thought about for so long, part of me wondered if it ever actually existed.

Which it did. And was possibly even stranger in reality than I remembered. Not a long-lost classic by any means, but one worth digging up and dusting off for posterity at least.

After that, we went back to the Need for Speed series, and a remake/reboot of Need for Speed: Most Wanted, which was fast and looked nice, but was otherwise a major disappointment.

(Occasionally I wonder whether my lack of knowledge when it comes to newer games means I might be more easily swayed by their relative flashiness, which was definitely not the case here. Or is the opposite true, and I’m stuck in my ways and resistant to change and new things? Ah, who cares… I still didn’t really like Most Wanted (2012), as we must call it).

Then it was back to the 90s again and three sequels to games already covered. First, we had the Sega Rally stylings of Screamer 2, then a long-delayed reunion with Lance Boyle in MegaRace 2 – which was a bit rubbish, just like MegaRace, albeit for slightly different reasons. Manic Karts, meanwhile, was quite good – just like predecessor SuperKarts, in fact, and for exactly the same reasons.

Finally, we added another (possibly final) entry in our collection of early/mid-00s street-racing titles with the unnecessarily saucy Street Racing Syndicate. Despite being embarrassing in lots of ways, I actually quite liked the racing itself, although it does have a fairly frustrating endgame that necessitates some hefty repetition of races that you’ve already won.
 

RPG

Back in February, Stoo brought us a review of Gas Powered Games’ Dungeon Siege 2. (His question, ‘How do you lay siege to a dungeon anyway?’ – as posed in the intro to the review of the first game – is a line that still really tickles me. And how do you lay siege to space?) As far as action RPGs go, I think he rather liked it.

In his introduction this time around, my friend and colleague also offered up to me the RPG hat of wisdom and agility on the basis of my recent adventures in the genre. It’s an honour of which I am not worthy, although I did follow up my Mass Effect coverage of 2021 with reviews of Knights of the Old Republic and its sequel in 2022, so perhaps I could trade in the hat for a futuristic jerkin of moderate competence.

Why exactly this was such a Star Wars based year for me personally, I’m not sure. KOTOR's mid-00s take on things even tempted me to revisit the film prequel trilogy, my original opinion on which (they’re a bit rubbish) remained fairly static. As for the games, I think I bought some big Steam bundle a few years ago and since then they’ve all just sat there in one big mass, waiting to be unpicked. Anyway, KOTOR seemed like a good place to start, and I liked both games.
 

Simulation

Oh, hey, so I completed X-Wing, too! Which had officially been consigned to the Vault of Regret (i.e. probably unlikely to happen) many years ago.

In 2021, one idea for a possible anniversary double was to revisit TIE Fighter for a discussion alongside a new review of X-Wing. It didn’t happen, but that was the seed of my idea to have one final crack at the latter.

It’s an iconic game, and a hard game for sure, but surely not beyond the wit and cunning of Rik from the famous gaming site A Force for Good? Well, it nearly was, but I finally nailed it, after a few solid months of effort. And it was well worth it, too.

Will this herald more regular entries in the Simulation category? Am I now motivated to try our more old space shooters? It’s possible, although without the historical allure of trying to beat a particular game from my past, it’s more likely I might give up at the first sign of serious trouble.
 

Sport

It was a relatively quiet year in retro-sport-land, with coverage of two official tie-ins prompted by real-life events.

In recognition of the 2022 Winter Olympics, we took a look at one of the last real ‘Olympic event’ games to be released on PC, Vancouver 2010. For which I had reasonably high expectations, based on Eurocom’s summer equivalent title a couple of years previously.

Vancouver 2010 wasn’t without some entertainment value, but unfortunately seemed fairly light on content, even by the standards of the genre.

At the other end of the year, we had the morally dubious winter World Cup, and after rejecting various other candidates for review, I discovered that EA’s World Cup 98 could be persuaded to work on modern machines and set about revisiting it. Possibly the past inaccessibility of this previous lost love contributed to my disappointment in the reality, although I do think it has a tactical element that subsequent FIFAs ironed out, to their detriment.
 

Other Stuff

Elsewhere, our spoiler-tastic discussions of modern indie adventures continued, as Jo and I enjoyed a tale of the gig economy in an automated world of the near future in Neo Cab; an 80s-inspired kids-vs-horror adventure, Oxenfree; spying on people’s video calls in Telling Lies; and reminders of teenage awkwardness on the internet in Emily Is Away and Emily Is Away Too.

We also brought a couple of series to an end: The Big Cardboard Box was sealed up, and with my musical knowledge stretched to breaking point, we drew a line under Soundtracks, surely one of the greatest article series to flippantly cover 00s music trends as featured in racing and football games that ever existed. Who knows, perhaps exciting new ideas will replace these departed semi-regular features in the near future?

If not, there are plenty of other things to keep us occupied. Like reviews of old games, perhaps. Hopefully by now any regular readers will know what to expect from us in a calendar year, all things being equal, and we’ll do our best to maintain, improve (or, let’s face it, very slightly fall away from) that expected quantity and quality of #content in 2023.

I look forward to it. Thanks again for reading, and I do hope that the year ahead has good things in store for you all.