FLips

Why are you posting pictures of her on loads of forums though? What's the point?. I've had the same best friend for 16+ years but I don't go posting pictures of him and going on about it. Does she know you do it, or that you joke about "getting mucky" with her or go on about how much you love her? It's mental.

That "muck" comment he made made my toes curl. He's obviously trying to imply there's something between them without actually saying it.

What happened to Advice Dog?

What nods are made to the original? Spoiler them if you want!. I'm curious

TripleA's Platform Review #4

Next up is my favourite PS1 platform game, and one of my favourite games of all time. It was the first ever Playstation game I played and I recently completed it again on my PS3, along with it's two sequels. A colourful, rewarding, and most importantly - fun platforming game that has stood the test of time.

Spyro The Dragon (PS1)

Spyro The Dragon is a game (or at least series) that everyone will have heard of. Around in the Platform-heavy Playstation 1 and N64 Generation, this was Sony's answer to games like Banjo Kazooie and Mario 64. Along with Crash Bandicoot, Spyro took over the PS1 as the Console's top Platform series.

You play as the titular Spyro, and his Dragonfly pal Sparx. You must save the Dragon World from the evil Gnasty Gnorc and his minions, who have not only stole all the Dragon's treasure, but petrified them all and stole their eggs. You must guide Spyro through 6 worlds, Artisans, Beast Makers, Dream Weavers, Peace Keepers, Magic Crafters and Gnorc's World. Each World has around 5 or 6 levels split into different types. 4 Normal levels, 1 race level and 1 boss level.

The normal levels require you to simply get to the end of the level and find as much treasure and Dragon eggs as you can, saving all the frozen Dragons along the way. The frozen Dragons you free supply you with hints and tips to the whereabouts of hidden treasure or secret areas, whereas some just thank you and leave. The Dragon eggs are held by taunting blue theives who run away as soon as they see you, meaning you have to chase them round circuits to ram into them and take the egg back.

The Treasure comes in different colours that are worth different values;

Red - 1

Green - 2

Blue - 5

Yellow - 10

Purple - 25.

The Race levels are like bonus levels in which you fly Spyro through hoops, flame bad guys and collect chests on a ciruit, under a time limit. For each set of items you collect you get treasure. There are no threats in these levels.

Boss levels are usually shorter than the normal levels and have less treasure and dragons on them. You usually just chase a boss through the level until you fight him and collect whatever he drops.

The game itself controls a bit jagged at first, but by no means are they bad. They just aren't as smooth as Mario or Banjo for example. X jumps and Glides if pressed in mid-air, O is your flame power and [] is used to charge with your head. L1 and R1 control the camera.

Spyro handles well and there was a good amount of thought into his powers. For example, the flame power does not harm bad guys with metal armour, so they must be charged with the [] button. The controls are simple to learn, and simple to use. You could ask for a little more smoothness, but you can't win them all.

Speaking of jagged, the graphics fit that term nicely. Also like the controls however, this isn't a bad thing. Granted, they could look better, but it's 1998 and the game is quite long, with tons of music on the disc, so obviously the graphics had to suffer a bit. The game doesn't look bad for it, everything is bright and colourful, or murky and dark depending on the worlds, and there are tons of different landscapes and enemies and stuff.

The music was composed by Stuart Copeland (the drummer from The Police) and is one of the most memorable soundtracks I know. The quality and variety of the music is great, and fits each level and world to perfection. If there's one thing this game doesn't cut corners on it's the sountrack.

Also, the Wizard Peak level's music was used as the soundtrack for The Amanda Show. Bit of fun trivia for you

The levels themselves are similar to Mario in that they're like a small open world. There's no linearity at all to them and you can roam wherever you like. This makes the game work in my opinion. If Spyro was put into say Crash Bandicoot's type of game, it just wouldn't work at all. Things are hidden in allsorts of places, and in some levels you're rewarded for taking strange paths. Treetops for example is a level filled with Boost Pads that make Spyro sprint faster and jump further, if you turn the wrong way on a few of them and link them together you can reach a hidden area filled with treasure and a dragon and stuff.

Spyro can take a few hits, shown by the colour of Sparx. The brighter he is, the more you can take. To re-fill just kill some sheep or frogs or other harmless animals on the level.

Checkpoints are spread numerously over the level, and to save the game just stand on one of them for a while. Easy peasy.

The game is quite long, each level takes a good while to do and you must collect a collective amount of treasure or eggs or dragons to reach the next world. The quickest I can do the game 100% is around 6 and a half hours. The fastest just rushing from start to finish takes 2 and a half. This is trying to do it fast though, and i've completed it tons of times so I know my way around. For first time players or people just casually plodding through it this will last a lot longer though.

It's one of those games that remind you of how good platforming used to be when there was more than just Mario and unique Indie titles on the market. There hasn't been a good Sonic, Mario, Rayman, Crash, Donkey Kong, Kirby or whoever else game since god knows how long, and there's a reason some of them (Sonic, DKC, Rayman, Kirby) are all returning to their roots. Spyro should be one of them. The Spyro on the 360 is enjoyable, but it's combat-based, forceably Co-operative and nothing like a platform game used to be. Bring back the PS1 days, I say.

Pros-

The game looks colourful and bright, and each level and world is varied

Sounds great, CD quality music that had a lot of effort put into it.

A deep game with tons to collect and find, giving hours and hours of play

Easy to control and pick up and play

Cons-

A bit easy for those wanting a challenge

Graphics could be smoother

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Next up - Rolo To The Rescue (Sega Megadrive)

How fucking big's that picture.

My bad, thought it would automatically re-size. Fixed now for your viewing pleasure

In other news, Spyro will be up sometime tomorrow.

TripleA's Platform Review #3

Next up in a hopefully long line of reviews is another member of the "Rubbish in 3D" club. What started as a highly challenging, almost flawless 2D sidescroller became riddled with rubbish 3D controls, terrible sidekicks and spin-off games. Thankfully a new 2D game is being released soon that returns the series back to it's roots, and I couldn't be happier. So here i'll take a look at the game that started it all...

Rayman - PS1, PS3 Store, PC, Sega Saturn, Jaguar

Rayman is a story of a limbless man who's home and friends are under threat from a mysterious figure, appropriately named "Mr Dark". He's captured and caged all of the Electoons and spread them across the various areas in Rayman's world. Rayman must rescue the Electoons and stop Mr Dark.

The game looks stunning, especially for a 1995 game. In my opinion it looks better than a fair amount of 2D Sonic and Mario games. It uses 65,000 colours and you'd be hard pressed to find a better looking and more colourful platform game on the PS1, 2D or 3D.

Each area (Dream Forest, Band Land, Blue Mountains, Picture City, Cave of Skops and Candy Chateau) all look original and stunning. The forest flourishes with trees and rivers, wild fruits and wild animals, whereas the Cave of Skops is full of jagged stalactites, volcanic rocks and dangerous spike pits. It all looks so good, and hasn't aged a day.

There's two things you can say about Rayman which cannot be argued against. One, it's extremely hard. The game spikes in difficulty after about 4 levels and doesn't get any easier throughout. I couldn't get any further past the 3rd area till I was 20. The levels are hard, the boss fights even harder, and you can't even fight Mr Dark unless you've rescued every Electoon. This is a solid platformer. The second thing to say is that the game is hard, but through no bad faults. The game controls perfectly. It's responsive, easy to use, and has excellent level design. The D-Pad moves Rayman, O is run, X jumps, and X again lets you hover for a while, and [] is Punch. The Punch is your main way of attack and can be charged to reach further, with powerups also available for collection. The powers Rayman uses are collected gradually through the course of the game, he starts with only a basic jump. Punching, grabbing ledges, hovering, and sprinting are given to you by Betilla the Fairy and each one comes with a small practice level to become adapted to them.

If you ever die in this game, it won't be because the game is cheap, or glitched or badly designed. It'll be because you mis-timed a jump, or did something wrong. That is what adds to the replayabilty and "never give up" attitude you'll get whilst playing this game.

The music in this game sounds great, but blows it's load on the early levels and becomes forgettable the further in you get. It also suffers from odd editing, where the music will fade out mid-level leaving you thinking it could have been something much better if extended. Band Land and Dream Forest are choice picks, also the last boss has pretty threatening music. One good thing the game has though is sound effects. Fun twinkles and cartoonish punching effects amongst other things make the sound stand out. The end of level jingle (Rayman spins round, and shouts "YEAHHH!" with a jumpy little tune playing) is also memorable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM_5oQ_kAtY - Dream Forest

This ultimately looks like a simple game for kids, but it is far from it. Your kids would never be able to complete this. They'd enjoy the first few levels and then the novelty of dying over and over would wear thin and they'd give up. For this reason I can't really recommend it for anything under possible mid-late teens. It's not Mario or Sonic in terms of playability, unless your child is a gaming god. Older players will definately enjoy the challenge though.

Overall the game handles perfectly, sounds above average, looks great for it's age and provides a massive challenge. The levels are varied and tough, the boss fights range from simpe to exceedingly difficult, and if you're like me, you may never reach the end of it without an extra lives cheat and a password to unlock the last boss without collecting everything (I did play all the actual levels though, so I never skipped any levels or anything like that).

Pros-

Bright and colourful graphics

Perfect controls

Varied and fun levels

Great challenge for fans of Platformers

Cons-

Too hard for the target audience

Soundtrack doesn't reach it's full potential

Stupid rule demanding 100% completion before last boss is available

For fans of platform games, this is a must. Not only will it provide you with a more than decent challenge, but you'll know you can do it eventually and that it isn't just the game being cheap and screwing you over.

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Next up - Spyro The Dragon (keep your suggestions coming )

Good review Triple A, I agree its the best on the PS One series and the height of the series as a whole

Oh definately. For me the Crash series is way too inconsistent. 1 Was linear and he handled very slowly, 2 was pretty much spot on, 3 was filled with gimmick levels and he moved oddly fast, Crash 4 was unmemorable, Twinsanity was really well written but full of glitches, and the two mutant ones are fun but they're just not Crash. The racing ones have always been quite good, but stuff like Crash Bash they may as well have not bothered. They should have kept what made 2 work and just built on that, but it seemed they were always trying to make something new and forgot what made it good.

TripleA's Platform Review #2

Number two up now. A Playstation 1 classic as part of a trilogy of fondly remembered games on that console (barring the Kart Racing and Party Game one).

Crash Bandicoot 2 - Cortex Strikes Back, PS1

Crash Bandicoot 2 is the second of three Crash Bandicoot platform games on the original Playstation. In my opinion - and possibly others - this was the top of the three. One handled a lot more slowly and had a lack of variety in levels, a terrible save system and a massive spike in difficulty mid-way through the game. Number 3 was good, but bundled with terrible novelty levels (biking, tiger-riding, scuba diving, piloting, etc.) and for some reason moves a lot faster than the other 2. Crash Bandicoot 2 is just right.

The game starts shortly after the end of Crash Bandicoot 1. Cortex has been blown out of the sky and has landed in a cave of Crystals which he figures out can help him build a machine to destroy the world, The Cortex Vortex. Due to Cortex's lack of athleticism, he tricks Crash into collecting Crystals for him by saying they'll help him. Throughout the game, Crash's sister Coco and one of the baddies off the last game Dr Nitrus Brio warn Crash that Cortex is tricking him, and he should collect hidden Gems to destroy the Cortex Vortex.

The game begins in a training level (which you can skip) in which Coco asks Crash to go get some batteries for her laptop. You can then control Crash through the short level to get used to the controls, until finally you find a secret portal to the warp room of actual levels. The controls handle just fine, if a little more responsive than the first game. X is jump, [] is spin, and O is crouch, with the D-Pad to move Crash. The O button can also be used to do a higher jump if you hold it whilst jumping, and if moving Crash will slide. It handles great for what it is.

When in the Warp Room you can pick 5 levels in any order and must obtain the purple crystal in each before being able to advance to the boss. There are 5 normal warp rooms with 5 levels, and a hidden warp room activated by doing specific actions in the normal levels. The hidden one takes you to the previously unaccessable parts of the normal levels, and 2 completely new levels where hidden Gems can be found.

The levels all take a specific theme for each floor of the Warp room. 1 is normal levels with a mix of places to get you used to the game, 2 is mostly snow levels, 3 is mostly sewer levels, 4 is mostly digging and bee levels, and 5 is the space themed levels where you fight Cortex.

Altogether the game has 25 Crystals, and 42 Gems, 5 of which are coloured and open new platforms in the levels to obtain more clear gems.

The graphics are about as good as you'd expect for a relatively early PS1 game, but they suit the game and are by no means bad. They're just nothing special. The variation in themes and settings make up for the quite jagged graphics though, with plenty of views to be seen.

So the game handles well, looks alright, and has a followable and simple story, what's next?

The soundtrack!. Consider me biased by the soundtrack, and it was composed by the genius that is Mark Mothersbaugh (Co-Founder of Devo, Founder of Mutato Muzika and composer of TV, Games and Films you'll all recognise such as the majority of Wes Anderson films, The Rugrats theme tune, Pee-Wee's Playhouse and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. He also has his own Art section on "Yo Gabba Gabba").

Even before I discovered Devo or Mark Mothersbaugh though, the Crash Bandicoot series has always had a suitable and memorable soundtrack which i'd never forgot from my childhood. Some tracks more memorable than others, but they all suit the levels they're assigned to.

The game itself poses a mediocre difficulty, especially compared to the first game. However, if you aim to collect all the gems as well as the crystals then this game might just be the challenge you're looking for. Not only are some of the gems in hidden and difficult to reach places, but a system meaning some gems open the paths to other gems makes this game a bigger adventure than you'd think. The last level in the game for example requires all 5 coloured gems to take you on a path for the last clear gem in which you cannot die and is filled with enemies and tricky jumps. Each level also gives you a gem for smashing every box on it, including those in the bonus level and hidden paths. Not only do the gems add a heap more replayability to the game, but they're genuinly fun to find and save the game from being linear.

So overall the game is a classic PS1 platform game, with a good look, good controls and a slightly memorable sountrack. The levels have depth thanks to the gems, and the boss fights are platforming 101. There's a reason this game has stood the test of time and is still being completed (by me at least) to this day. The save System has changed from only being able to save every few levels by collecting tokens to complete a bonus level which saves your progress, to a simple wall that you activate to save at any point in the game.

Pros-

Well balanced controls

Levels with Depth

Colourful and suitable graphics

Fun and varied soundtrack

Improved Save System from the first game.

Cons-

A slight spike in difficulty if you want all the gems

The last boss is too easy

No way to know if you've smashed all the boxes in a level until you reach the end of it (this was changed in Crash 3)

Story is the usual platform stuff, but doesn't change much from 1 or 3. Crash is stupid.

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Next game up - Rayman

TripleA's Platform Review #1

Seeing as i've not done any more budget game reviews in quite a while I thought i'd play through a few of my platformers and start getting small reviews up. My other reviews seemed to be well-liked so I thought that a few reviews of old and new platforming games would be appreciated by those missing the golden ages of gaming, or craving a new Xbox/PS3 download.

I'll kick things off with something fairly new (possibly the newest one on my list). The reviews will end with a pros and cons list and all additions are open for discussions, whether you agree or disagree. They're also in no particular order so this is not a countdown or anything. If nobody is that arsed by them i'll just stop clogging up the thread and take the message!

So starting it off;

Braid - 360/PS3 Arcade, PC, Mac

Possibly the most stunning game i've ever played. Also the only game I can confidently describe as not only a game, but art.

You play as a man named Tim. He looks nothing like your run of the mill cute or "cool" platform characters like Sonic, or Spyro and the like, but is rather a small, red-headed man in a scruffy black suit.

He controls fine, left and right, jump, the usual stuff. However, Tim can control time. With the use of the shoulder buttons and X, Tim can rewind, stop and even fast forward time as he pleases. The game handles brilliantly, and such as one or two of the other games i'll be writing about, if you die or mis-jump something, it'll be because you did it wrong, not because the game has bad handling.

Luckily for Tim, he can't die.

The game borrows bits and bobs from other games, most notably Mario. The protagonist looks like a regular man, the enemies are small Goomba-like creatures and ferocious plants, and the princess is never in the castle.

That's not to say that this game is a rip-off, not at all. The game is unique in almost every aspect, most obviously the graphics and the "story".

The graphics in this game are beautiful. A visual treat. A load of environments, colours and shades just glowing on the screen. They look like every peice has been hand-painted and amazing amounts of detail are put into each level.

The story is a completely unique part of the game just on it's own. Unravelled throughout the levels in forms of books which tell the tale of a man searching for a love lost, going through great measures to reach his princess. However all is not as it seems as the story never directly implies anything and as such the story can be interpreted in many ways, among those including theories of the Atomic Bomb, and reversed roles in the game.

The aim of the game is to collect Jigsaw peices (nothing like Jiggies) and build puzzles to reach new parts of levels, or new levels altogether. There are 6 levels, though you start on Level 2. Each level has it's own puzzle made of around 9 peices. Tim must use time-manipulation to collect all the pieces and make his way to the final level.

The game is like one long puzzle, using time to changes decisions Tim makes and each level has a unique way of using time. Some let him simply reverse and fast-forward, some allow time to be slowed in a particular area, and some allow for Tim to use clones of himself to help him reach new destinations.

One thing that just must be mentioned too, is the soundtrack. The soundtrack is astounding and provokes emotion with each beat. It's hard to describe, but this game could not have any other soundtrack and be as atmospheric or correct.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7BMM-M1Yyw...feature=related Shira Kammen - Lullaby Set.

The game looks and acts exactly how you want a platformer to. It looks gorgeous, sounds gorgeous but most of all has no negative features regarding level design, or controls. However, this game may be a bit "artsy" or perhaps even difficult for those expecting a Mario knock-off, or high-speed side scroller. You could say it's a platform game for adults.

Pros

Astounding Graphics

Perfect Controls

Atmospheric Soundtrack

A well-written and intelligent story, that goes far beyong "princess has been kidnapped"

Challenging puzzles and depth.

Cons

May be too difficult for younger or inexperienced players (though only if they want to do it all properly)

Time-manipulating games aren't for everyone

The story, though up for interpretation, may be too much for someone just wanting a simple game

The Hidden Stars are extremely hard to get, though not necessary for completion

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Next game up Crash Bandicoot 2 - Cortex Strikes Back (suggestions are welcome)

It was Jimmy Kahoona's post that set me off when he said that holograms were far fetched, but there's evidence that it was controlled explosives. Personally i'm in the "we all saw planes fly into it, lots of people died, stop making up conspiracies something else happened when it obviously didn't" camp.

EDIT: He's not the only one in the thread saying he doesn't believe what happened either.

I can't believe that anyone would deny 9/11. Seriously, get some fucking brain cells. Holograms, and controlled explosives? Planes flew the fuck into the towers! There's footage of it happening for fuck sake. This thread is full of absolute cretins. I bet half of you deny the holocaust too.

9/11 was holograms was it? You fucking morons.

In the last few days in London I saw David from Big Brother 2009 at Russel Square, and Super Hans off Peep Show in Victoria Station. I'm not one to run up to people or get autographs, but I did awkwardly stare at Super Hans and when he stared back with his massive crack head eyes I bricked it and looked away. He looks like a psycho.

Take the tinfoil off, you spastic.

You're not using the most recent update in your post? Then what's the point in posting it, you mentalist.

On the streams TUF was on and directly followed by Strikeforce.

I don't want to search for it as I'm bound to come across spoilers, so...

 

Can someone confirm (or not) that there was a Strikeforce MMA show last night??

 

Thanks.

It was 2 nights ago I think.

Does sound like Spike Dudley.

This guy? http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/wwe-...-jakks-82167400

But this is just accusations at the minute? funny how she only has nightmares since the mother told everyone about it, and not since it actually happened.

What?

Correct me if i'm wrong, but this is all just accusations and at that, only ones that came up when Maddie went missing?

The Incredible Machine 2 on DOS.

Hey, I see you and your girl are sharing a PS3 profile; that's quite a commitment you've made there TripleA! Congratulations!

 

... they grow up so fast...

Well we went halves on it so I felt obliged she's got it now in trade for her Wii which i'm playing Mario Galaxy 2 on!

To be honest, the further into the game I get, the more sick of it i'm becoming. I want to do the 120 solid hidden green stars, but i'm stuck doing speed runs, daredevil runs and monkey games. Just dreadful.

I'm sorry, but you're playing them on the pc? You're emulating a Wii game on a pc with an Xbox pad and you're moaning about the controls?. Fucking helllll