Unofficial Turrican remake

Old-skool 2D shooters aren’t something we write about much; the PC wasn’t well-regarded as a platform for such things, and to be honest I don’t think we’d have a lot to say about most of them anyway. As for Turrican itself, I don’t think Turrican itself even got a PC release. Still, it is most definitely regarded as a classic of its genre, the name spoken in revered tones amongst those who were gaming on formats like the Commodore 64 and Amiga. Plus there was that awesome soundtrack.

I think it’s one of those “if you play any amiga oldie at all, try this one” titles, so both the original and this remake have to be worth a go. Even if you’re like me you’ll probably just die lots and marvel at how much more patient gamers must have been in 1990.

Hello all.

Recently I completed Price of Persia: The Sands of Time. And it’s a rather fantastic game – breathtaking acrobatics, a misty-mythical Arabian-nights feel, and a good story too. I actually gave a damn about what happened to the Prince and Farah – and it’s all too rare that a game evokes such a response. Sure, maybe their fallign in love is rather obvious and inevitable, but their journey to that point is well done, from bickering and mistrust to grudging mutual respect and then affection. They’re characters you can empathise with, not just generic heroes. When the prince takes a hit in combat, and Farah goes “oh no!”, it’s actually kind of gut-wrenching.

The combat meanwhile is on the weaker side but what the hell, learn the wall-rebound move and you’re practically unstoppable. So you can enjoy hacking up a few sand monsters, then get back to running, leaping and swinging which is really what the gameplay in SoT is all about.

Now I’m onto Warrior Within… and I’m undecided so far. The acrobatics look of a similar nature, which is good. The combat is greatly expanded, with a whole load of combo moves. All of which result in me getting my ass kicked when I try them, apart from the aerial-slash. Which I use over and over. Also, the game’s attitude is very different. It’s all dark and angsty, and the prince scowls a lot. I kind of miss the wry commentary of the young chap from before, now it’s all “IS THAT THE BEST YOU HAVE YOU BITCH”. I think he’s been listening to too much nu-metal.

Also while farah’s outfit was on the scanty side in SoT, WW’s female costumes are several steps more ridiculously flimsy. Really, development chaps, there’s more of us than just adolescent boys playing this game.

Oh, wait, this is officially supposed to be an old-games blogjournal. Well, I do intend to try the original PoP sometime soon. And will probably find it ridiculously difficult!

Although supposedly an avid gamesplayer, I’m pretty bad at actually getting through games. I do like buying them though – especially if they’re cheap – so that they can sit on my shelves for weeks and months while I get around to playing them.

I decided to steel myself and stop reckless purchasing of budget games (online or otherwise) so that I could actually work my way through some of the ones I already had. It was such a good idea it actually worked for a while – and until recently, I’d been making serene progress through my dusty old CD caddy without even a thought of going into GAME and seeing what was in the ‘3 for £10’ section.

Besides, those things are con anyway. Shops are so badly stocked these days that it doesn’t seem possible to indulge in a multibuy offer without coming away with at least one copy of Tomb Raider.

At least that’s what I thought until I discovered that you can buy direct from the publisher and get the same deals you get in the shops – only with a choice of the full range available to you. To cut a pretty boring story short – I just broke my embargo and bought a handful (plus one) of games for myself from the $old Out website.

Truth be told, while there was quite a good selection available (and I could have bought even more) it was still a little bit thin and some titles have clearly been cut from the range. You can get Deus Ex: Invisible War, for example, but the original (and best) is nowhere to be found. Clearly, it (and others) aren’t selling enough to be worth keeping on the range.

Thinking about it, I guess it’s a bit unreasonable to expect the publishers to keep our beloved favourites on their label forever – so all the more reason to snap these things up while they’re available. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t need abandonware or to joust for copies of Planescape Torment and Fate of Atlantis on eBay – but by grabbing hold of a few games on budget when you see them, you’ll be saving yourself all of this hassle a few years down the line. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

And the games? I’d love to say I’d bought some highbrow strategy titles, but let’s have a look at what I’ve been playing recently, shall we?

Hello,

A double-whammy of celebrity(ish)-endorsed games for you today.

First up, we have a review of Colin McRae Rally 2.0. I’d love to say this was timed to coincide with the imminent release of the latest in the long-running series, the frankly daft-sounding Colin McRae: DiRT, but I’d just be lying if I did.

Secondly, we have another addition to the Sport section, with David Leadbetter’s Greens having the dubious honour of being the first golf game featured on FFG.

If that’s not exciting enough for you, be sure to check out our newest feature, the FFG journal.

I’m quite a big fan of racing games, but recently, I don’t honestly feel there’s been all that much to get excited about. While the likes of Gran Turismo, Forza Motorsport and Project Gotham Racing are all pretty good games, there’s just something about doing laps of a circuit that I don’t find all that exciting.

I remember when The Need for Speed first came out, I thought it was fantastic. To me, fast cars mean driving on roads, with traffic and cops to contend with – before I ever owned a PC, I used to love playing Test Drive 2 on my friend’s Dad’s machine. Of course, in both of those games, you were only ever really driving in a straight line, but the illusion of being free to drive on public roads worked nevertheless.

Unfortunately, both the Test Drive and Need for Speed series went off the boil, and produced some sub-standard (in the case of the former) and gimmicky (in the case of the latter) sequels and follow-ups that never quite recaptured the feeling of their respective high points.

Recently though, I’ve been playing the latest TD game, Test Drive Unlimited – and it’s quite good, too. Of course, my PC couldn’t possibly handle the Windows version, so my PS2 has to come creaking into action. The developers have actually done a pretty good job in squeezing it onto Sony’s aging console – and although they’ve had to cut some corners, it looks pretty good and runs smoothly. The PC version looks even better, though.

Anyway, you’re given the freedom of Hawaii to drive around and pretty much do as you please. To progress, you obviously need to start getting involved in races and earning money to upgrade your car, but if you don’t want to do that, you can just, well, drive. It’s like GTA without the guns and a more realistic driving model, or Midtown Madness with wide-open spaces…

Hello everybody, and welcome to our newest feature, the FFG journal.

Some time ago now, in a bid to broaden the scope of the site beyond that of a sporadically-updated review site, we decided to include other general articles about gaming. Unfortunately, as regular visitors to the site (if there are any) will have noticed, we haven’t been able to keep up with new content for this section as much as we’d have liked. Aside from a few galleries and our genre history features, some of the other articles generally amount to semi-topical rambling about, er, something or other vaguely related to old games.

Trouble is, once a bit of time has passed, some of these articles don’t seem so relevant (or coherent) as they might have done (at least to the author) when they were written, yet they remain on the site, loitering like a slightly embarrassing relative. And if they ever drift into dementia, sometimes I have to pay Dr. Stoo to kill them off altogether.

Anyway, rather than worrying about whether a thought is worth turning into an article for the site, writing it and then wanting to take it down later, we thought we’d give this a try instead, posting our more disposable gaming thoughts whenever the hell we feel like it.

We’ll be mentioning old games on here, of course, but expect to see posts about newer titles in the world of PC and console gaming, emulation, soundtracks, as well as more general ranting about this and that.

Hope you like it – feedback is always welcome, preferably directly under the post you want to comment on (er, I think that’s how these new-fangled things are supposed to work)…