Gran Turismo

Get The New Machine!

I don't drive a car. I have no intention to. But I enjoy racing games and can - should the make and model suit - enjoy looking at cars. For the longest time in gaming you couldn't really do both, and certainly not to the extent that Gran Turismo offered.

One hundred and forty licensed and detailed cars from manufacturers the world over, a simulation mode to take you from your first driving test to your final championship victory, an arcade mode to try out some of the best cars before you find the in-game cash to buy them in the simulation mode - Gran Turismo gave an awful lot to players when it finally hit the shops in the late 1990s, and at some point near its release it gave an awful lot to me too.

I've not played the original game properly since there was only the original game to play. Its many sequels and the console generations that have launched since have given me no need to, though I have always wondered whether it holds up, and just how different it is to the modern Gran Turismo titles.

Fitting, then, that I come back to where it all began while the PlayStation Network is experiencing problems that stop me from fully enjoying GT Sport...

GoldenEye 007

The name's Bond.

First Person Shooters. Video Game Console. The two have a history of not getting along, according to the Internet, and you can see why. When compared to the precision of a mouse and the vast array of inputs available on a keyboard, a limited controller with clumsy digital inputs just doesn't seem like it'd work.

Yet GoldenEye 007 exists and is considered one of the greatest titles known to man, as well as one of the most important milestones along this historical trek of ours - a first-person shooter on a video game console that doesn't suck.

I first saw it somewhere around its release at a friends house. I don't recall much of that day and don't think I ever played it myself, and most of what I know about it comes from watching plenty of speedruns and hearing it almost constantly get brought up in discussions of someone's gaming past.

Let's get this blog done in six minutes, shall we, James?

Diablo

Hello, my friend. Stay a while and listen.

Source // Wikipedia

"Mindlessly satisfying", they say. Just clicking here, clicking there and watching monsters explode. Why, then, is Diablo on the 1001 list?

This action-heavy, hack and slash RPG was inspired by Rogue, the developers seeking to emulate not only the stories players found themselves in but the strategies of when and where to move and act so as to not die as soon as you enter a room.

Then, after a vote to turn the game from turn-based to real-time, gaming changed a tad...

Final Fantasy VII

You look like a bear wearing a marshmallow.

A long time ago, I was told to get Final Fantasy VII because it was just that good. What did I do? I got Final Fantasy VI because it came with a demo for Final Fantasy X, which was obviously the better purchase - a taste of the paste with a glimpse at the future too.

But if you've read that blog post, you'll know that already. It's finally time for Final Fantasy VII, which is - apparently - one of the greatest games ever made in the history of ever, so it's got some clout around these parts.

It's also got some Cloud too...

See what I did there?

Cloud. You play as a kid named Cloud. Is he even a kid? I don't know. They all look like kids.

Fallout

War. War never changes.

This 1001 list is full of memories, but the memory I have for Fallout is one where I was watching a friend play, and while it looked pretty good, I kinda wished I was playing something else instead. On a console, where games were meant to be played.

Fast forward ten or so years and I'm playing my first Fallout title, Fallout 3, or as many of us knew it, Oblivion With Guns. Bar the annoying bugs and freezes on the PlayStation 3, I enjoyed my time in the wasteland, as well as wherever the DLC would take me, and would go on to play Fallout: New Vegas too, enjoying it even more.

Add another decade and I'm sat here, having skipped over Fallout 4 entirely, ready to play the original Fallout and looking forward to it. How soon will I fall, like the nuclear bombs of the past?

Final Fantasy Tactics

"Have you ever heard of the Lion War?"

Previously, I dabbled in a game by the name of Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together, where Final Fantasy met Dungeons & Dragons and all was good - only it wasn't good because I found myself moving away from it, rather than towards it.

Final Fantasy Tactics is to Tactics Ogre what D&D 5th Edition is to Pathfinder: Easier for the newcomers. Developed by the same brains as those who worked on Tactics Ogre and steered in an easier but still tricky enough direction by those who knew the Final Fantasy series, Final Fantasy Tactics is a game I've been looking forward to playing for a while now.

The world of Ivalice is a world of war, and we are but knights in training looking for our place within it. And there might be something about a stone and some Zodiac signs. I really don't know. Time to dive in and find out.

Dungeon Keeper

It is payday.

Why do you always have to play the hero? Even playing a flawed hero is still playing the good guy on a quest to defeat the bad guys. Who wants to do that over and over again? Who, instead, wants to let their bad side free to dictate the way things go? Who wants to be a Dungeon Keeper?

Part real-time strategy, part simulation, Dungeon Keeper is all kinds of different. You play as an evil overlord whose Imp minions are mining out your dungeon so that you can fill it with nasties to protect yourselves from the inevitable visit from a hero hoping to prove himself.

Will you smartly scope out your surroundings and build on the strengths of your forces and the needs of the situation, or will you flail around like a useless imp?

Einhänder

Enemy threat removed by your heroic attempt.

What do we make? Role Playing Games! What shall we release? A 2.5D sidescrolling shooter!

The developers at Square probably didn't chant that as they were making Einhänder, but that's what players got in late 1997: an unexpected title from an unexpected developer on an unexpected system that unexpectedly made enough of an impression to warrant a spot on the 1001 list.

What's it all about? I have no idea. The name comes from German to mean 'one hand', and refers to your ship having one hand to pick stuff up with. Where we go from there is anyone's guess.

I.Q.: Intelligent Qube

Again?

The puzzle game is a genre that I tend to avoid, mostly because of the lack of a storyline. I enjoy racing and sports as genres, and while they don't have an explicit story (FIFA's The Journey being the exception, obviously), you can infer one from the events that take place - a racer must overcome his rival to take the gold, a team must score a certain number of goals in order to progress through a competition.

Puzzle games... not so much. The story here is that some little bloke (most likely a full-sized bloke who just happens to look little from this distance) finds himself suspended in an infinite black void and is tasked by choosing which of the coloured cubes that roll/stomp towards him will be saved, and which will be left to fall off the edge and tumble for eternity. Or something like that.

There's no story, really, but there is a task to accomplish, points to score and rules to learn, so let's get to it.

Why is it a sphere?

DoDonPachi

Dododododododo...Your mission starts now. Are you ready?

"Bullet hell.", begins the 1001 entry to DoDonPachi, assuming you know of the phrase already. The idea that a shoot 'em up can be so chaotic and manic that the best way to describe it would be 'like flying through bullet hell'.

The term, so I read, grew in popularity because 2D shooters had to do more and more in order to compete with the emerging 3D games that were getting all of the attention. How does a 2D shooter do more and more? If it's not highly detailed sprites and over-the-top effects, then it's highly detailed sprites and over-the-top effects applied to twenty enemies at once culminating in a monstrous boss battle that requires players to dodge hundreds, if not thousands of projectiles.

Bullet hell.

Let's find out how hellish DoDonPachi can get.